My Other half had testicular cancer last year, the cancer travelled up his gland system, behind stomach, and lung.  He is cancer clear at the minute but has been told the lymph nodes behind his stomach are 13mm and need removed, what is the normal size of these and is an operation really nesccesary?
Hi. Good day. You have not mentioned the testicular tumor type. From the treatment option you have mentioned I presume that it is Non-seminomatous Or mixed germ cell tumor. Residual tumor remaining in lymph nodes behind stomach (Retroperitoneal Lymph nodes) need to be removed. A retroperitoneal lymph node dissection has to be carried out as per guidelines for lymph nodes greater than 10\u00a0mm. It is because these lymph nodes may harbor residual cancer which has not responded to chemotherapy. If residual tumor is found on histopathology report of dissected specimen, two further cycles of chemotherapy will have to be given. Retroperitoneal lymph nodes dissections most common side effect is retrograde ejaculation apart from surgical complications like wound infection, blood loss during surgery etc. like in any other surgery. I hope I have answered your query. Please discuss it with your oncologist and I would be happy to answer any further questions. Thankyou for choosing Chat Doctor.