Half the amount of chemo prevents testicular cancer from coming back, new trial shows

A new clinical trial, which has been partly funded thanks to your donations, has shown that testicular cancer can be prevented from coming back using half the amount of chemotherapy that is currently used.

Many men who have had surgery for an aggressive form of testicular cancer see the disease return elsewhere in their bodies and need intensive treatment, often within two years after initial diagnosis.

The new trial showed that giving men one cycle of chemotherapy, instead of two, reduced the debilitating side effects which can have a lifelong impact on patients’ health.

The trial was led by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and the Institute of Cancer Research, London, and involved nearly 250 men with early-stage testicular cancer at high risk of their cancer returning after surgery. The trial has already begun to change clinical practice, reducing the number of hospital admissions, and lowering the costs of treatment.

Professor Rober Huddart, Professor of Urological Cancer at the ICR, and Consultant in Urological Oncology at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Men with testicular cancer who are at high risk of recurrence have generally been treated with two cycles of chemotherapy – but our new study found that one cycle was enough to stop their tumour from coming back.

“Reducing the overall dose of chemotherapy could spare young men who have their whole lives ahead of them from long-term side effects, and also means they will need fewer hospital visits for their treatment.

“This new trial is already changing clinical practice on a global scale, and is set to improve patients’ quality of life as well as reducing the costs of testicular cancer treatment.”

One patient who took part in the trial was 35-year-old Kris Taylor, who was treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham after having surgery for his testicular cancer.

He said: “I was playing football semi-professionally at the time I was diagnosed. Even though my prognosis was good, knowing that you have cancer is really scary, and the key thing for me was to get back to normality as soon as possible. I’d already had to have time off for surgery, so, when I was offered the chance to have less chemo but with no greater risk the cancer would return, I jumped at it.

Kris Taylor, picture reproduced from Shropshire Star

“The side effects of the treatment were really difficult, but I was straight back on the pitch as soon as it finished – five years on, and I’m still fighting fit. It’s great to know that others may now be able to benefit from the trial’s findings. Being able to reduce the amount of chemotherapy a person receives can make such a big difference to their quality of life in both the short-term and the long-term.”

Mike Hammond, Chief Executive of Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Charity, said: “QEHB Charity is proud to have been able to part-fund this ground-breaking trial which is already changing the way that testicular cancer is treated. This was only possible thanks to the generosity of our donors and fundraisers who enable us to fund research projects that have the capacity to change and save lives.

“The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham is on the forefront of the fight against cancer, and our supporters have played a huge role in this over the years, funding research projects and cutting-edge equipment such as CyberKnife.”

You can find out more about how we support cancer patients at our hospital here.