June 23rd

I Met with the Urologist again today and got all of the news on my ct scans and pathology. My tumor was malignant, which is no surprise. Dr Melouk told me earleir in the process that from what he has seen, tumors like mine are cancerous in about 90% of the cases. My non-seminoma cancer has a few indicators that increase my risk factors: 100% malignancy of the tumor area, partial invasion of vascular region in the area and epididmal invasion. This means that I have about a 60% risk for recurrence of some sort if left untreated. In addition to these indicators, I do have one slightly enlarged lymph node on the left side of my lower abdomen. Since the lymph node is only slightly enlarged, we are not sure what this might mean.
going forward, my options are pretty cut and dry for this sort of cancer. I could opt for RPLND. Holey smokes-- this is an invasive procedure! RPLND stands for "retroperitoneal lymph node dissection" and is a major surgery to determine if the cancer has actually spread or if further treatment is needed. See this website for more information. It is a little graphic in a scientific sort of way, so if you don't like that sort of thing, don't look!
The other option is a Chemotherapy treatment called BEP. This is a three treatment coctail that includes the following: Etoposide, Cisplatin and Bleomycin.
Each are toxic to DNA/RNA in different ways-- I have a lot of learning to do about this and will post more information as I learn . . . In the meantime, here are some basics:
http://www.livestrong.org
http://www.plwc.org/testicular
I am currently leaning toward The BEP Regime, since I do not like the idea of a major invasive surgery that also may be followed by a full chemotherapy treatment. The cure rates for proceeding with Chemo only appear to be great. The side effects are not fun, but I am not faced with two potential 6 week recovery periods (surgery plus potential chemo . . .)
If I choose chemotherapy now, it looks like it will be a two cycle treatment with about 6 weeks from start to finish. Looks like I will have the first meeting with the oncologist to discuss this more in the next few days. There is also a small possibility that we may just observer my status and not do anything (although this is not really realistic).
Wish me luck!