What are the treatments for testicular cancer?
Treatment for testicular cancer is either local or systemic. Local treatments remove, destroy, or control the cancer cells in one certain area. Surgery and radiation are local treatments. Systemic treatments are used to destroy or control cancer cells throughout the entire body. Chemotherapy is a systemic treatment. A man may have just one treatment or a combination of treatments. Surgery: The goal of surgery is to remove the tumor. This is called a radical inguinal orchiectomy. This requires removing one of the testicles (or both testicles if both have cancer). If both testicles are removed, a man will not be able to produce sperm and will be infertile. Surgery is almost always the first step in treating testicular cancer. Radiation therapy: Radiation uses x-rays to kill cancer cells. Most often, the goal of radiation for testicular cancer is to kill cancer cells that have spread to lymph nodes. Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer. In testicular cancer, chemotherapy m
