Human chorionic gonadotropin and alphafetoprotein in the staging of nonseminomatous testicular cancer.

Thirty patients with nonseminomatous testicular cancer and no evidence of metastases outside the retroperitoneum were evaluated for discrepancy between the clinical and pathologic stages and also for frequency of elevations of the serum levels of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and alphafetoprotein (AFP). When marker-level data were not considered in the staging, the clinical and pathologic stages differed in 47% of the patients; the inclusion of marker data reduced the staging error to 37%. Seven of ten patients with clinical Stage I, pathologic Stage II disease had normal marker levels (false-negative results). However, there were no false-positive results: abnormal marker levels before retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy always signalled persistent tumor unless the level could be accounted for by the metabolic decay rate of marker produced by the primary tumor. Comparison of marker-level data from these patients with data from 48 patients with Stage III disease demonstrated increasing frequency of elevated marker levels with increasing stage (P less than 0.001). Serial determinations of HCG and AFP are helpful in clinical staging and are necessary in clinical management.