Adjuvant treatments appear to have no significant detrimental long-term effects on sperm count in men being treated for clinical stage I testicular cancer, results of a recent investigation suggest.
Sperm number and concentration were largely stable over time in patients who received a round of chemotherapy or radiation to lymph nodes following orchiectomy, according to results of the 182-patient study.
Investigators said they still offer sperm banking before orchiectomy, since some patients will have low sperm counts prior to orchiectomy that persist after the procedure.
Moreover, the type of testicular cancer and the potential need for other postorchiectomy treatments are often “unknown factors” that underscore the importance of sperm banking, said the researchers, led by Kristina Weibring, MD, of Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm.
“Assisted reproductive measures may be necessary for these patients regardless of any treatment given,” the researchers noted. The report is in Annals of Oncology.
The lack of effect on sperm counts in this study stands in contrast to previous studies, which clearly show the detrimental effects of multiple chemotherapy cycles on sperm recovery, the investigators said.
Their study comprised 182 patients 18-50 years of age with clinical stage I testicular cancer who underwent unilateral orchiectomy. Depending on tumor characteristics, the patients then received one cycle of adjuvant carboplatin, one cycle of a bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin (BEP) regimen, surveillance, or adjuvant radiotherapy to the infradiaphragmal para-aortic and ipsilateral iliac lymph nodes. Sperm samples were obtained at 6, 12, 24, 36, and 60 months after the completion of treatment.
While there was a transient drop in the radiation-treated patients at the 6-month evaluation, mean total sperm number otherwise increased over time in all groups, according to the investigators’ report.
Similarly, mean sperm concentration significantly increased from baseline to 12 months post treatment in the surveillance, BEP, and carboplatin groups, with a nonsignificant decrease in the radiotherapy group, they said in the report.
There were generally no significant differences in sperm count or concentration for the treatments, compared with surveillance, beyond a significant decrease in mean sperm count for radiation versus surveillance, they added.
There were likewise no significant changes in sperm measures for seminoma and nonseminoma patients at any point over the 5 years of evaluation, reported data show.
“With the results of this study, we can now inform our patients that adjuvant chemotherapy does not seem to affect the testicular function,” Dr. Weibring and her colleagues concluded.
The authors reported that they had no conflicts of interest related to the study, which was supported by the Swedish Cancer Society, among other sources.
SOURCE: Weibring K et al. Ann Oncol. 2019 Feb 25. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdz017/5348526.