Testicular Cancer Clinical Trials & Research

MSK is a major research institution. During your treatment for testicular cancer, your care team may ask if you want to join a clinical trial. 

What is a clinical trial? 

Clinical trials are research studies that test new treatments, procedures, or devices to see how well they work. They are an important part of helping to prevent, treat, and cure cancer. Almost every cancer treatment given to patients was first tested during a clinical trial. 

MSK tests new treatments for testicular cancer. Treatment trials test new drugs, drug combinations, devices, and ways of doing procedures, surgery, or radiation therapy. 

Sometimes a clinical trial gives you access to new therapies that are not yet available at most hospitals. Talk with your doctor about whether joining a clinical trial is right for you. 

Clinical trials are designed to answer questions about: 

  • Safety 
  • Benefits 
  • Side effects 
  • Whether some people are helped more than others 

MSK will start a clinical trial only if our researchers think we can improve methods for cancer: 

  • Prevention 
  • Treatment 
  • Diagnosis
  • Screening 

For more information, please read Clinical Trials at MSK: What You Need to Know.

Testicular cancer research at MSK 

When you come to MSK, your testicular cancer care team will have experts from many areas. This includes urologic surgery, medical oncology, radiation oncology, and pathology. 

You may be able to join a clinical trial. Our doctors will work with you to understand your goals for joining our research study. We will support you throughout the process. 

MSK is researching new treatments for testicular cancer. One of them is immunotherapy, which uses the body’s own immune system to attack cancer cells. We’re studying ways to treat this disease with less harm to your body.

We’re also exploring new ways to diagnose this cancer and improve surveillance (monitoring). MSK researchers have developed a diagnostic biomarker called the MSK microRNA Assay. It’s non-invasive, which means we do not put something in your body. 

A diagnostic biomarker is used to find or confirm cancer. We use a basic blood test to see if the biomarker is in your blood. A tumor marker is material shed by a tumor with cancer. 

MSK is studying the best way to bring this new serum tumor marker into our regular patient care. If you’re in our surveillance program for testicular cancer, you may be able to join our clinical trial. It assesses the role of microRNA for the diagnosis and surveillance of testicular cancers. 

You can see a current listing of MSK’s clinical trials for testicular cancer below.  

 

and/or
3 Clinical Trials found
A Phase 2 Study of a Lower Radiation Therapy Dose to Treat Children and Young Adults With Central Nervous System Germinoma
Researchers are assessing a lower dose of standard radiation therapy after chemotherapy in young people with germinomas. The patients in this study have germinomas of the central nervous system (brain or spinal cord).  It is hoped that this new approach can destroy germinomas with fewer long-term side effects.
New York City
A Phase III Study Evaluating Less Intensive Ways to Treat Germ Cell Tumors
Germ cell tumors (GCTs) include ovarian teratomas and testicular cancers. The standard treatment for "low-risk" GCTs includes complete removal by surgery followed by chemotherapy with cisplatin, bleomycin, and etoposide, unless the patient is a young child, in which case careful observation may be adequate. GCTs are considered "standard risk" if the patient is under age 25 at diagnosis, the tumor was not completely removed during surgery or has spread to other parts of the body, or proteins in the blood called tumor markers are elevated. The standard treatment for standard-risk GCTs includes chemotherapy with cisplatin, bleomycin, and etoposide followed by surgery, followed by more chemotherapy if needed.
New York City
A Phase III Study of Accelerated versus Standard Chemotherapy for Patients with Intermediate- and Poor-Risk Metastatic Germ Cell Tumors
The standard treatment for poor-risk and intermediate-risk germ cell tumors (GCTs), such as testicular cancer, is chemotherapy with the drugs bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin (abbreviated BEP) given every three weeks. In this study, researchers want to see if giving BEP chemotherapy every two weeks is more effective for controlling tumor growth than the standard regimen in patients with metastatic intermediate-risk and poor-risk GCTs.
New York City, Commack, Basking Ridge, Westchester, Monmouth, Bergen, Nassau