Testicular Cancer Mortality in Chile: Is it as high as we think? 41 years of experience in a single center

Nicolás Pieressa P*, José Rojas C, Carolina Bonomo M, José Villena H, Ítalo Raineri V, Sebastián Oporto U, Cristián Alliende, Miguél Sarrás J, Christopher Horn B, Bruno Vivaldi J, Iván Saez V, Felipe Mandujano T and Fernando Coz

Introduction: Testicular cancer carries a good prognosis, with survival rates over 70% at any stage. According to the GLOBOCAN database, Chile has the highest mortality rate worldwide, without a clear explanation of why this is the case. The objective of this study is to contrast the observed deaths in a chilean center during a 41-year period, to the national data previously reported by GLOBOCAN.

Methods: For this retrospective descriptive study, data was retrieved from medical records from every patient diagnosed with testicular cancer between the years 1978-2019 in our center, and their death certificates were assessed for comparison. Histological type, staging, adjuvant treatment, and cause of death, among other variables, were analyzed. 

Results: Out of 255 patients diagnosed with testicular cancer, 239(93.7%) were alive at the time of data collection. Out of the 16 recorded deaths, 5(2%) had testicular cancer as cause of death, two out of these five patients had early stage cancers, completed 5 years follow-up without relapse, had multiple comorbidities, and had unspecific information in the death certificate. Thus, testicular cancer cannot be attributed with certainty as the cause of death in those patients.

Conclusion: Chile has the highest mortality rate for testicular cancer worldwide. In our center 40% of the patients that have testicular cancer as cause of death had presumably been incorrectly registered in the death certificate. A possible explanation for the high mortality in Chile could be an incorrect registration of testicular cancer as cause of death.

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Published on: Dec 12, 2019 Pages: 9-11

Full Text PDF Full Text HTML DOI: 10.17352/aur.000006
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