A 29-year-old man developed a painless testicular lump, detected in auto-exam, and immediately sought medical assistance. An ultrasound examination showed a right testicle hypoechoic mass. AFP was above the superior limit of the normal value, and there was no evidence of metastatic disease in imagiological exams. Right inguinal radical orchiectomy was performed one day later, and histological exam revealed a teratoma with a low grade immature component. Pathological staging of pT1N0M0S0 – IA was done, and a surveillance program was implemented. Seven years later, during a routine scrotal ultrasound exam, a hypoechoic nodule of 11 mm was found. The patient was asymptomatic. Tumor markers were normal, as was the thoraco-abdomino-pelvian CT scan. A left inguinal radical orchiectomy was done. Histological exam revealed a TGCT with invasive classic seminoma with TIN component. He was staged as pT1N0M0S0 – IA, and a single carboplatin AUC7 session was done. 12 months later the patient remains disease free.
A 40-year-old male presented at our outpatients department complaining about a testicular painless mass on the right testis, which had shown a gradual enlargement over the past two months. The only symptom the patient had was discomfort in the scrotum and a sensation of testicular heaviness. His medical history did not report any known risk factors for testis cancer, such as cryptorchidism, and he did not have any comorbidities. Physical examination revealed a firm and nontender mass both on the right and on the left testis, which were easily separable from the epididymis. No other constitutional signs were present. Laboratory workup revealed a moderately elevated b-hcG (24,7 mIU/mL) and CEA (1,97 ng/mL), a-FP (1,62 ng/mL), and LDH (180 IU/L) within normal levels. Firstly, he was submitted to a scrotal ultrasonography which revealed a testicular mass that measured approximately 2,3 × 3,1 cm on the right testis () and another testicular mass of 2,4 × 1,5 cm in size on the left testis (). The computer tomography (CT) of the abdomen did not demonstrate any enlarged retroperitoneal lymph nodes. The chest X-ray showed no abnormality. The patient was scheduled for operation and he did not want to have frozen storage of sperm, although he was fully informed about the consequences, since he was a father of two children and also was informed about the occurrence of hypogonadism after the operation and that he will have to be under a strict endocrinologist follow-up and hormone replacement. He chose bilateral orchiectomy for oncological reasons. Finally, he underwent bilateral orchiectomy with high ligation of the spermatic cord. The postoperative period was uneventful and the patient exited the hospital the next day. The elevated b-hcG on the postoperative measurement (the 15th day) was within normal values (0,3 mIU/mL). Histopathological evaluation of the specimens revealed the following: (a) an embryonal cell carcinoma of the right testis limited to the testis with lymphovascular invasion of pathological stage pT2 (): staining with antibodies showed CD30(+) and a-FP(−); (b) a seminoma of the left testis, limited to the testis without invasion of the tunica albuginea or vascular invasion of pathological stage pT1 (): staining with antibodies showed CD117(+), CD30(−), and a-FP(−). On both testicles intratubular germ cell neoplasia of unclassified type (IGCNU) was present. The patient was referred to an oncologist and was submitted to two cycles of adjuvant combined chemotherapy with bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin (BEP). His follow-up consisted of physical examination, serum markers, chest X-ray, and CT of the abdomen, according to the EAU Guidelines recommended follow-up schedule. Six months after the operation no residual tumor or recurrence was observed, neither local nor systematic. Finally the patient is under a strict endocrinologist follow-up for the management of his hypogonadism state.