Testicular tumors in children

Although relatively rare, testicular neoplasms affect a significant number of young children each year. The most common tumor is embryonal carcinoma. With proper management, which includes orchiectomy and retroperitoneal lymph node dissection, survival rates as high as 80% can be expected for children with stage A disease. The use of adjunctive chemotherapy in early stages of embryonal carcinoma may reduce the failure rate even further. Salvage of more advanced cases is possible with the addition of chemotherapy and radiation. Similar results have been obtained in the treatment of other malignant tumors of childhood. Benign tumors of the testis are less frequent than malignant ones and present no special problems in management.