Intense does of anticancer drugs can cure a large majority of men with testicular cancer after first-line treatment fails, according to a study out of Indiana University.


The overall cure rate for testicular cancer is 90 percent after the first round of treatment, but there is a subset of difficult, metastatic cases and about 30 percent of these patients in this group suffer relapse.

The report describes "salvage therapy", where high doses of chemotherapeutic agent led to remission for 118 out of 184 such men.

The take home message is that "continuous effort to provide treatment is effective, " according to one of the study's authors, Dr. Abonour.