Staging and prognostic factors in nonseminomatous testicular cancer.

Staging of nonseminomatous testicular cancers, as with other tumors, renders important prognostic information and is necessary for making appropriate treatment recommendations. There is no universally accepted staging system for testis cancer, however. Despite the lack of uniformity, most of the staging systems in use today are capable of segregating patients into a "good-risk" or "poor-risk" category. The former group experiences cure less frequently and are appropriate candidates for investigational treatment. Tumor bulk is the most important prognostic factor in virtually all staging systems.