Radionuclide diagnosis of regional metastases in patients with testicular tumours.

We have studied 181 patients with germ-cell tumours of the testis. The first group comprised 80 persons without evidence of metastasizing into retroperitoneal lymph nodes; the second group included 101 patients with germinal testicular tumours metastasizing into regional lymph nodes. Eighty patients were subjected to transperitoneal lymphadenectomy which allowed comparison of the results of lymphoscintigraphy (negative radionuclide diagnosis with colloid agents labelled with gold and technetium positive radionuclide diagnosis with 99mTc-pertechnetate) with the findings of histologic examination. We demonstrated high significance of lymphoscintigraphic methods: sensitivity 83%, specificity 90.9%, significance 86.2%. It was found that information obtained with lymphoscintigraphy can serve as clinical guidelines in determining the site, size and spread of metastasizing, which is very important in choosing fields of irradiation. Lymphoscintigraphy in testicular tumours enables more accurate staging and radicality of lymphadenectomy at different time intervals after surgery.