Chemotherapy for testicular cancer

Testicular cancer is one of the common malignant tumors in the male reproductive organs. Its incidence rate is about one in 100,000, and it mainly occurs in young and middle-aged people. There are many causes of its occurrence. According to different causes, there are also many treatment methods. Among them, chemotherapy is one of the treatment methods for testicular cancer. Today, I will give you a detailed introduction to the chemotherapy of testicular cancer.

Chemotherapy for testicular cancer is a method of using anticancer drugs to kill cancer cells throughout the body. Chemotherapy is usually used after surgery to kill any cancer cells that remain after surgery. This method is called adjuvant therapy. Chemotherapy can also be used as the first treatment if the cancer is in an advanced stage. Most anticancer drugs are given by injection directly into a vein.

Chemotherapy is a systemic treatment, which means that the drugs travel through the bloodstream and affect both cancer cells and normal cells throughout the body. The side effects of this treatment usually depend on the type and dose of the drug used. Common side effects include nausea, hair loss, fatigue, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, chills, cough, mouth pain, and rash. Other side effects include dizziness, numbness, poor reflexes, and hearing loss.

Some anticancer drugs can interfere with sperm production. In some cases, infertility is permanent, but in most cases, fertility returns after a short time. Some men with advanced testicular cancer or recurrent testicular cancer need a bone marrow transplant, which requires high-dose chemotherapy. These high-dose chemotherapy damages the bone marrow (which makes and stores blood cells). In a bone marrow transplant, doctors extract bone marrow or peripheral stem cells from the patient before chemotherapy. These cells are frozen, thawed, and re-transplanted into the patient.