Surgical resection of residual tumor after chemotherapy in non-seminomatous testicular cancer.

Fifteen patients with disseminated non-seminomatous testicular cancer, 13 of whom had advanced disease, underwent surgery for residual tumor after induction chemotherapy. Complete remissions were achieved in 7 of 9 patients with mediastinal or pulmonary metastases and in 2 of 6 patients with retroperitoneal metastases. Patients with alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels over 10(4) ng/ml at diagnosis and/or a positive AFP preoperatively failed to achieve complete remission. Complete remissions were obtained in all 8 patients who had resection of necrosis, mature teratoma, immature teratoma or mature teratoma with malignant foci, but in only 1 of 7 patients who had resection of embryonal carcinoma or yolk sac tumor with other components. Of 9 patients with complete remission, 8 have remained free of disease after a median follow-up time of 29 months (range 6-66 months) and one had a contralateral non-seminomatous testicular cancer removed after 60 months. In addition to being therapeutically successful, the combined use of chemotherapy followed by surgery for residual tumor may lead to a better understanding of the influence of chemotherapy on the biology of testicular carcinoma.