Oct 14, 2006 - In March 1999, Jason Foster was unpleasantly surprised by a BB-size lump that he found in one of his testicles. He ignored it for a week, hoping that it would go away. But instead, the lump swelled to the size of a pea. "I had alarm bells going off in my brain," recalls Foster. A trip to the urologist confirmed his fears—Foster had testicular cancer. The news set him on a grueling, 4-month path of surgery and multiple chemotherapy drugs. Foster lost his hair, spent hours throwing up, and was exhausted. To stay upbeat, he tried to keep the disease in perspective. "I knew I'd have a positive outcome on the other side," says the 36-year-old media-relations director at San Diego State University. "I still think of myself as having had minor league cancer. Those with breast, lung, and other cancers, they go through treatment, and there's no guarantee that they'll make it." Foster's take is correct: Among cancers, testicular cancer is unusually curable. Even when the cancer has migrated elsewhere in the body by the time of diagnosis, about 72 percent of men are still alive 5 years later. In contrast, the 5-year survival rate for breast cancer is about 26 percent after it spreads. Researchers have puzzled for years over what they call the "Lance Armstrong effect," named after the world's most famous bicycle racer and testicular cancer survivor. Some scientists propose that a single factor—heat—could be responsible for this cancer's relatively easy cure. |