Testicular Cancer Awareness and Survival
For many years testicular cancer has been the prime example of a cancer that is curable with chemotherapy, even when it has spread throughout the body. Yet while chemotherapy methods have remained the same since the development of breakthrough drugs in the 1980s (see the section Carboplatin), researchers have noticed that survival rates have continued to improve for testicular cancer patients. The most recent information shows that 97 per cent of all patients now survive compared with 95 per cent previously.
One explanation is likely to be earlier diagnosis of patients, resulting from improved education and awareness of testicular cancer in both patients and their doctors. Since the early 1990s, charities such as Everyman have been vocal in raising the awareness and profile of testicular cancer, with evidence that the general population is both more aware of testicular cancer and practices regular testicular self-examination.
To read Everyman scientist Dr Huddart's paper, on the British Cancer Journal website, please click on the link below:
Survival from testicular cancer in England and Wales up to 2001
