Re: testicular cancer in Europe and the USA: survival still rising among older patients.

BACKGROUND Despite high curability, some testicular cancer (TC) patient groups may have increased mortality. We provide a detailed age- and histology-specific comparison of population-based relative survival of TC patients in Europe and the USA. Design Using data from 12 European cancer registries and the USA Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results 9 database, we report survival trends for patients diagnosed with testicular seminomas and nonseminomas between 1993-1997 and 2003-2007. Additionally, a model-based analysis was used to compare survival trends and relative excess risk (RER) of death between Europe and the USA adjusting for differences in age and histology. RESULTS In 2003-2007, the 5-year relative survival of patients with testicular seminoma was at least 98% among those aged <50 years, survival of patients with nonseminoma remained 3%-6% units lower. Despite improvements in the relative survival of nonseminoma patients aged ≥ 50 years by 13%-18% units, survival remained markedly lower than the survival of seminoma patients of the same age. Model-based analyses showed increased RERs for nonseminomas, older, and European patients. CONCLUSIONS There remains little room for survival improvement among testicular seminoma patients, especially for those aged <50 years. Older TC patients remain at increased risk of death, which seems mainly attributable to the lower survival among the nonseminoma patients.