Certain patients with germ cell cancer should receive life-long follow-up

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

Patients with disseminated germ cell cancer who survive after more than one line of treatment have an increased risk for late toxicity and death, and therefore should be candidates for life-long follow-up care, a new study published online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Oncology has shown.

For the study, researchers identified 268 patients with germ cell cancer who received more than one line of treatment for disseminated disease from the Danish Testicular Cancer database to evaluate late toxicity and survival.

Results showed that just more than half of patients died from germ cell cancer. The remaining patients had an increased risk for developing a second cancer, major cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease, gastrointestinal disease, renal impairment, neurologic disorders, and death from other causes compared with patients who only underwent orchiectomy.

Researchers found that increasing age may contribute to treatment failure after second-line treatment in these patients.