Chemo jab 'can cure early cancer'
Updated on 06 October 2008
A single jab of a chemotherapy drug can cure a common type of testicular cancer, researchers said.
Carboplatin, which is often used to treat ovarian and lung cancer, can replace radiotherapy to cure early-stage seminoma, a study found.
The drug is being hailed as a "safer cure" for the cancer by experts, with fewer long-term risks.
About 40 to 45% of testicular cancers are early-stage seminoma and between 780 and 880 men are diagnosed with this stage of the disease each year in the UK.
In the early stages, the cancer is either confined to the testicle or causes slight enlargement of the lymph nodes in the pelvis or abdomen. It is nearly always curable and more than 95% of men diagnosed with early-stage seminoma live for more than five years after diagnosis.
In the largest ever trial of the disease, a single carboplatin injection was used to treat 573 patients with early-stage seminoma. The results were compared with 904 men given two or three weeks of daily radiotherapy, the current standard treatment.
Those patients given carboplatin experienced fewer side effects and were able to get back to their normal lives quicker than the men on radiotherapy, the research found.
Of 573 patients given carboplatin, a total of 5% relapsed within three years. But none of the men died from their cancer following further treatment.
Men with seminomas usually have the testicle removed where the cancer occurred. In one in 20 cases, the other testicle also develops cancer. Those patients treated with carboplatin were far less likely to develop cancer in the other testicle.
Dr Ben Mead, honorary senior lecturer in medical oncology at the University of Southampton's School of Medicine, who presented the study, said: "We were pleased by the results of this huge trial. Giving patients a carboplatin injection rather than radiotherapy is less unpleasant with fewer long-term risks."
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