Late complications of chemotherapy in testicular cancer

Cisplatin-based treatment has significantly increased survival in testicular cancer patients. Therefore, there has been enough interest for the late toxic effects of chemotherapy which affect the quality of life of the cancer survivors. These toxic effects may either persist or present long after the end of chemotherapy and involve the impairment of renal function, neurotoxicity, pulmonary toxicity and vascular disease. Also, a major issue experienced by a large number of patients is infertility, which has been improved due to modified surgical techniques, reduced treatment intensity, the use of sperm cryopreservation and methods of assisted reproduction. Physicians should also be aware of the risk of secondary malignancy development. Therefore, close follow-up of the testicular cancer survivors as well as, focus on minimizing treatment complications through improvement of treatment strategies are warranted. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.