Inguinal lymph node metastases from germ cell testicular tumors.

Between 1948 and 1982, 22 patients were seen with metastasis to the inguinal nodes from testicular germ cell tumors: 8 had a history of unilateral or bilateral orchiopexy with or without herniorrhaphy, 4 had nonsurgically corrected or uncorrected cryptorchidism, 9 had a history of herniorrhaphy, hydrocelectomy or transscrotal orchiectomy and 1 had no history of scrotal, iliac or inguinal surgery, or of tunica vaginalis or scrotal wall involvement by tumor. The histological type was pure seminoma in 5 patients, embryonal carcinoma in 7 and mixed tumor in 10. Treatment was individualized for tumor type and mode of presentation, and varied during the years according to the modalities available. At the time of this report 8 of 22 patients (36 per cent) are alive without evidence of disease from 2 to 29.5 years, 3 (16 per cent) have died without evidence of disease 10 to 17 years after treatment, 10 (45 per cent) have died of metastases 10 months to 6 years after treatment and 1 has been lost to followup. The over-all incidence of groin metastases from testicular carcinoma is low, even with a history of scrotal or inguinal surgery.