Talking about testicular cancer is tough for young people. A conversation about the disease can cause snickering and embarrassing gestures, but it is a serious issue to discuss because testicular cancer targets college-age males.
Despite battles against testicular cancer made public by figures like U.S. cyclist Lance Armstrong and comedian Tom Green, many young men neglect or refuse to self-examine themselves.
Yet, with 200,000 new cases of testicular cancer in America each year, young men cannot afford to pretend they won’t be affected. Testicular cancer is the most common form of cancer among men ages 15 to 40, according to the American Cancer Society.
“Talking about genitalia will cause giggles,” said Dr. Bipin Shah, a urologist at Riverside Methodist Hospital. “It is fine to make jokes as long as the message is getting across that once in their teens, men need to perform self exams.”
Shah tells his patients to check their scrotums once every month.
“If they make a habit of checking themselves in the shower on the first Sunday of every month, then they would never forget,” he said.
The ACS recommends males include an exam by a physician as part of an annual check-up.
When performing a self-exam, Shah said a man should be checking the testicles and the epididymis – the area near the testicles that stores sperm – for any lumps larger than the size of a pea.
Usually a cancer lump is not painful, and Shah said this is probably the reason why young men do not pay attention to a suspicious growth. Other symptoms may include testicular enlargement or swelling and a sensation of heaviness or aching in the lower abdomen or scrotum.
If a lump is found, that does not automatically mean testicular cancer, Shah said. The lump may be a non-cancerous cyst or a condition known as Varicocele, when varicose veins form in the scrotum.
If a male finds anything suspicious, Shah recommends an examination by a physician as soon as possible. If the lump is determined to be cancerous, out-patient surgery is done quickly to prevent the spread of the disease to other parts of the body.
“If, for example, a person is diagnosed on a Thursday or Friday, removal of the tumor will be on that Saturday,” Shah said. “It needs immediate attention. There is no waiting to do it until summer vacation.”
There are three stages of testicular cancer, Shah said. The sooner a man finds a suspicious growth, the better his chances of a full recovery. Fortunately, all three stages have a high success rate.
Stage one occurs when the cancer is confined only to the testicle. The survival rate at this stage is 95 percent. This is also the survival rate if the cancer has spread to stage two. Here, lymph nodes in the abdomen will be affected by the disease.
In its severest form the cancer has spread throughout the body. New innovations in chemotherapy have increased the survival rate in this stage to 70 percent. Still, about 300 deaths per year in the United States are attributed to testicular cancer, Shah said.
Each stage of testicular cancer can be treated by one or all of the treatment methods. These methods include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. The latter two procedures are usually saved for the more advanced stages of the disease, Shah said.
One possible side effect of chemotherapy is infertility, Shah said, but a testicular cancer patient wishing to conceive in the future can store his sperm for later use.
Despite the advances in testicular cancer treatment, Shah said it is still important men get in the habit of examining themselves and seeking treatment if they find anything suspicious.
“I want to cut down the amount of time between finding the cancer and treating it,” Shah said. He is helping to get the word out about self-exams by recruiting some of his patients to talk with high school students about their own experiences.
“We want to let them know that doing testicular self-exams are just as important for a man as breast self-exams are for a woman,” he said.
The Franklin County Unit of the American Cancer Society is concerned with educating young men about the threat of testicular cancer.
Kathleen Gough, cancer control director for the ACS, said the organization offers cards to hang in a male’s shower to remind and instruct him on how to perform a self-exam. The ACS hosts health fairs and runs a display at COSI that provides information about how to correctly administer a testicular self-exam. The ACS provides cancer patients with information about local cancer-specific support groups.
“We also run a program called One To One,” Gough said. “It is a hotline where those individuals recently diagnosed with cancer can speak with people who have been through the diagnosis.”
