Intra-abdominal testicle for 44 years – Carcinogenesis due to late treatment

24/08/2020 08:42

A 44-years-old man was admitted to the hospital for a pain in right iliac fossa where doctors detected a 7-cm intra-abdominal testicular cancer.

 

In last two weeks, doctors from Andrology Center, Viet Duc University Hospital (Hanoi) have received 2 cases of male patients suffering from cryptorchidism since their childhood without any treatment leading to carcinogenesis. 

 

The 1^st case is a 44-years-old man, married and has 3 children. Since his childhood, the right testicle has not been in the scrotum, however, no medical check-up or treatment was done. In last year, he was suffering from a pain in right iliac fossa and made him to be examined in Viet Duc University.The MRI showed a tumor in the right iliac fossa with size nearly 7 cm suggesting testicular tumor. On the 10^th of August, a  intra-abdominal right testicular cancer was totally removed by laparoscopic surgery.

 

 

The MRI showed a tumor in the right iliac fossa with size nearly 7 cm suggesting testicular tumor. On the 10^th of August, a  intra-abdominal right testicular cancer was totally removed by laparoscopic surgery.

 

 

Before that, doctors of Andrology Center have performed a laparoscopic surgery for total resection of intra-abdominal left testicular cancer for a male, 37-years-old teacher married with 2 children. The patient came to the hospital with a slight pain in left hypogastric region. The findings on CT Scanner is a 10-cm pelvic tumor, suspecting the carcinogenesis of undescended testicle.

 

Associate Professor NGUYEN Quang, Director of Andrology Center, Viet Duc University Hospital shared that at the beginning of male fetus development, testes are located in the abdominal cavity. After that, they gradually moved downward to the scrotum and stayed there until the birth. Numerous mechanisms are for moving the testes from abdominal cavity to scrotum. Any errors occurred in this process, the testicle would not be able to move to the scrotum causing cryptorchidism. This is a quite frequent pathology for men.

 

Male patients with cryptorchidism are at risk of infertility, especially for cases of bilateral cryptorchidism, testicular torsion… Additionally, the patients with cryptorchidism have the risk of carcinogenesis 10 times higher than normal location.

 

Orchiopexy is the technique to fix the testes in scrotum needed to be performed soon in order to reduce the aforementioned risks. So, any man detected one or even two testes not in the scrotum are required to visit specialized medical facility for a timely treatment to avoid risks such as infertility and carcinogenesis as these cases.

 

Testicular cancer is an uncommon cancer for men accounting for about 1 % of total male cancer. However, it is one of the most serious malignant diseases affecting man at the age of 15 to 35.

 

Signs and symptoms of testicular cancer:

 

The most frequent sign and also the cause of visit to hospital is a self- check of palpable testicular tumor or abnormal testicular enlargement.

 

Beside, patients could have some of following symptoms:

 

Tenderness at the inguinal or hypogastric region

 

Weightiness at scrotum or scrotal tension feeling in one side

 

Inguinal adenopathy

 

Abdominal pain (due to mass effect from intra-abdominal lymph node metastases or carcinogenesis of intra-abdominal testes)

 

Some palpable cervical lymph nodes, chest pain, short of breath… ( caused by metastatic cancer)