Testicular germ cell tumours: Outcomes at a tertiary hospital in the Western Cape, South Africa

SA Journal of Oncology

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Testicular germ cell tumours: Outcomes at a tertiary hospital in the Western Cape, South Africa
 
Creator Grobler, Gérard Spies, Petrus V. Burger, Henriette van Deventer, Heidi van der Merwe, André
 
Subject Urology; Oncology; Testis cancer Africa/South Africa; testis cancer; demographics; staging; treatment; outcomes.
Description Background: Testis cancer is a rare malignancy, and there are limited data describing Africa’s clinical characteristics and outcomes.Aim: We summarised 16 years of South African data, comparing it to available data for Africa and international data.Setting: The retrospective review included males 12 years with testicular germ cell tumours diagnosed and treated at Tygerberg Hospital from 01 January 2005 to 31 December 2020.Methods: Self-declared racial status included Caucasian, mixed ethnicity, African and Asian. Patients were identified from uro-oncology and pathology records indicating any form of testicular cancer. Data were extracted for demographics, staging, treatment and outcomes. In addition, patients were contacted or tracked as part of a living status report by the Department of Home Affairs to determine the last contact date for survival outcomes.Results: There were 142 patients in the study. The most common risk factor was cryptorchidism (14.1%), but most patients reported no known risk factors (82.4%). Seminomas presented 10 years later than non-seminomatous germ cell tumours (NSGCTs). Having no risk factors seems to be protective hazard ratio (HR) 0.18 and being diagnosed after 40 years carries an increased risk of death. The histopathological classification was fairly equal, with 70 seminoma and 72 NSGCTs. There was no statistical difference in the stage distribution between seminoma and NSGCTs. The overall 5-year survival was 91% for seminoma compared with 78% in NSGCTs. With a time horizon of 15 years, a patient was expected to survive 16% (1.9 years) longer in the seminoma group. Clinical stage (CS) three patients had a higher risk of dying compared with CS1 and CS2, and there was no difference between seminoma and NSGCTs (HR = 12.6).Conclusion: The clinical characteristics of our patient population correspond to international data. There is a need for better health education to ensure patients present earlier and have access to appropriate medical care.Contribution: Our data represent the largest series of testis cancer outcomes at a single centre in Africa and the aim is to motivate other centres to describe and analyse their oncological outcomes to ensure we provide the best possible care to all our patients in South Africa’s future.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor CJ Lombaard from the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of Global Health, University of Stellenbosch, Bellville, Cape Town , South Africa assisted with the statistical analysis.
Date 2023-11-01
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajo.v7i0.268
 
Source South African Journal of Oncology; Vol 7 (2023); 6 pages 2523-0646 2518-8704
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajo.org.za/index.php/sajo/article/view/268/787 https://sajo.org.za/index.php/sajo/article/view/268/788 https://sajo.org.za/index.php/sajo/article/view/268/789 https://sajo.org.za/index.php/sajo/article/view/268/790
 
Coverage Western Cape; South Africa, Africa 2005-2020 Age; Ethnicity; Risk factors; Staging; Treatment; Outcomes
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Gérard Grobler, Petrus V. Spies, Henriette Burger, Heidi van Deventer, André van der Merwe https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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