We reviewed 175 consecutive patients registered for testicular cancer (124 men with seminoma and 51 men with nonseminoma) at a single institution between 1991 and 2010.
Men with the time to consultation of>6 months (n = 56) had a poorer overall survival than those with the time to consultation of 鈮? months (log-rank test, P = 0.028), despite similar disease stage between them (P = 0.897) and less prevalent nonseminoma in the former (P = 0.032). Although the negative effect of consultation delay on overall survival was significant only in nonseminoma histology (log-rank test, P = 0.004), the time to consultation of>6 months was an independent risk factor associated with poorer overall survival (hazard ratio [HR] = 18.0, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.78-182, P = 0.014), in addition to nonseminoma histology (HR = 17.4, 95% CI: 1.38-219, P = 0.027) and stage II or higher disease (HR = 12.9, 95% CI: 1.36-123, P = 0.026) in all the patients. The time to consultation was positively correlated with the primary tumor size (P<0.001). The time to consultation was shorter and the primary tumor size was seemingly smaller in patients registered between 2001 and 2010 (n = 104) than in those registered between 1991 and 2000 (median 74 d vs. 109 d, P = 0.042 and 5.8卤2.6 cm vs. 6.7卤3.3 cm, P = 0.068, respectively), although disease stage and overall survival were not different between the 2 periods (P = 0.233 and log-rank test, P = 0.719, respectively).
The time to consultation and primary tumor size showed a strong positive correlation in men with testicular cancer. Delays in consultation had a negative effect on their survival, particularly in those with nonseminoma. The time to consultation significantly shortened and the primary tumor size was reduced with a borderline significance in men registered between 2001 and 2010 compared with those between 1991 and 2000, although stage migration or survival improvement in recent years was not observed.