Second Time Around

[Appleyard]

Well I guess I should start with a little history. My husband Is battling testicular cancer for the second time. In December 2005 he was diagnosed with the cancer in his left testical stage one seminoma. He had the surgery and radiation every thing was going good. Then right before we went back for his 2 year check up he felt a lump in the right testical they did an ultrasound and found a mass his urlogist schedualed him for surgery on the 18th of August to do a biopsy he called in the middle of the surgery and told me and his mom it was cancer and they were removing the testical. It was also a stage one seminoma, But it was a new cell. It has been so crazy his oncologist presented his case at a tumor board and they said one dose of chemo and 17 treatments of radiation would be the best treatment although they think they got it all. He did the chemo last week and starts the radiaton next week. He starts testosterone shots in a couple weeks. He's only 29 and already battled cancer twice He really is my hero. But I am still in shock. I try to hide it the best I can from him, but I know if I don't talk to someone soon I'm going to explode. So any advice would really help!:confused:

[Jay68442]

Hi AppleYard and welcome.
Please feel free to vent away. You have come to the right place for support. We have many caring and understanding people in the forum family as we refer to it and they are always willing to lesson. There are also a few guys here that have been down the TC 2x road so if you or your husband have any questions be sure to fire away. So any advice would really help! Talk, vent, learn and try to stay strong and positive.
Best of luck to you and your husband.

LiveStrong
Jason

[Kiwi]

Hi Appleyard

Thoughts are with you and your partner, having just been through my second seminoma I know the types of thoughts your partner may be having. Both of mine were also stage one’s however I had elected a surveillance regime for the recent one.

Please let your partner know there are other TC2 guys here too.

Regards

Kiwi

[Aegletes]

AppleYard,
First of all, as a TC 2x survivor (stage I seminoma like your husband), I'm so sorry you and your husband have to go down this road again, and so soon relatively speaking after the first TC. As others have mentioned, this is one forum where you'll find plenty of support to say nothing of resources and answers to some nagging questions. The second time around, needless to say, poses a whole new set of issues so fire away. Let me just add a question back to you: TC being rare and TC 2x being rarer still, where you able to find an oncologist experienced in the treatment of cases such as your husband's? Prior XRT from TC1 (such as was my case) complicates things a bit with respect to post-IO treatment when it comes to TC2, particularly as a second round of XRT is typically avoided.
Best regards,
Alex

[Appleyard]

Algletes,

He has a great oncologist he is the one who found it the second time.

[Karen]

Appleyard, welcome. I'm sorry your husband is going through this yet again! I do need to second the comments from Alex, though. RT a second time is generally not considered. I understand you trust the oncologist, and that's great, but you may want to think again about a second opinion on his treatment. What was the field and Gy of the RT the first time, and what is the doc suggesting this time (I know it's 17 daysm but what field and dose)?
Was it a one time single agent chemo, (carboplatin) or a round of BEP or EP?

[Scott]

He did the chemo last week and starts the radiaton next week.Have you been able to consider a second opinion on treatment before proceeding with the radiation? See this TCRC page (http://tcrc.acor.org/recur.html) for more background.

[Fed]

I'm arriving a bit late to this, but here are my two cents. Since your husband has already had a course of radiation for his first presentation of seminoma, a second one for the contralateral presentation is usually not recommended. There are limitations to the amount and location of radiation the body can receive. In fact, the NCCN Guidelines (http://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/PDF/testicular.pdf) stipulate that for any case of stage I seminoma, surveillance is the appropriate course of action if any radiation has been done prior to this presentation. Of course, there is also the possibility of doing 1 or 2 cycles of adjuvant carboplatin if there is a risk of a relapse. Is there anything in the pathology report (such as lymphovascular invasion or rete testis invasion) that would allude to a greater risk of a recurrence?