Late complications of chemotherapy in testicular cancer

Treatment based on Cisplatin has significantly increased survival in patients with testicular cancer. Therefore, there has been enough interest to investigate the late toxic effects of chemotherapy which affect the quality of life of testicular cancer survivors.

According to experts, these toxic effects may either persist or present long after the end of chemotherapy and involve the impairment of renal function, pulmonary toxicity, neurotoxicity and vascular disease. Also, a major issue that occurred in a large number of patients is infertility, which has been improved due to modified surgical techniques, reduced treatment intensity, the use of sperm cryopreservation and methods of assisted reproduction. Physicians should also be aware of the risk of secondary malignancy development.

Therefore, close follow-up of the testicular cancer survivors as well as, focus on minimizing treatment complications through improvement of treatment strategies are warranted.