fbpx Testicular Cancer Survivor Calls for Early Education
A doctor holds a tablet towards a patient and points to the pelvic region of the body showing on it.

Testicular Cancer Survivor Calls for Early Education

Asa Newell cites the need for quick detection of the disease, which tends to affect young men.
María Cristina Lalonde
Written by

María Cristina Lalonde

On an otherwise perfect summer day in Waltonville, Illinois, 17-year-old Asa Newell was zooming around his local lake on an innertube being pulled behind a motorboat. The sun was shining, the wind was whipping through his hair and everything was great.

Everything, that is, except a strange, intense pain in his groin.

The pain was acute enough that Newell hollered for his dad to stop the boat. The teenager was rushed to a nearby express care facility, and from there to the hospital. An ultrasound revealed he had testicular cancer.

At the time, Newell didn't know much about the disease.

"I had heard of it, but I didn't know what the signs or symptoms were," said Newell, now 20.

That changed by the end of the day.

"With help from my mom and my dad, I learned just about everything about testicular cancer," he said.

Through frantic online research, Newell and his family learned he'd been diagnosed with a rare type of cancer that forms when malignant cells develop in the tissues of a testicle.

Testicular cancer is unusual: Unlike other cancers, it tends to affect young men. The disease is most common in males between the ages of 15 and 45, when their testicles are most actively producing testosterone and sperm.

Most testicular cancers can be cured, even when they've spread to other parts of the body.

As he learned about his condition, Newell tried to maintain a bright outlook.

"I thought back to my grandma having cancer and other people in my life who had had cancer and stayed positive," Newell said. "People who didn't stay positive didn't have as great of an outcome."

Newell might be onto something. Some research suggests that cancer patients with an optimistic outlook are at lower risk of readmission to the hospital; other studies have linked optimism to longer life spans in general.

Testicular cancer treatment

Still, remaining optimistic throughout his treatment wasn't always easy.

In the months that followed, Newell had a radical right orchiectomy, which is the surgical removal of the right testicle. The surgery revealed that he had embryonal carcinoma, a type of testicular cancer that tends to spread rapidly to other parts of the body.

A follow-up scan showed his cancer had metastasized to his lungs, abdomen and the region behind his heart. To destroy the malignant cells that spread beyond the testicles, Newell was treated with BEP (bleomycin, etoposide and platinum, or cisplatin), a combination of three chemotherapy drugs.

"The treatment works amazingly and killed all the cancer," Newell said. "But it's not an easy track. It takes the energy out of you and it messed up my heart a little bit."

Heart problems rapid heartbeat and heart attack are two are occasional side effects of BEP, according to Cancer Research UK.

Life after testicular cancer

Now, nearly three years after his diagnosis, Newell is a vocal testicular cancer awareness advocate. In addition to working with the Testicular Cancer Society to develop marketing strategies directed at young people, Newell has spoken out in support of Illinois Senate Bill 240. The bill requires males starting their freshman year of high school to receive information on the disease.

It has been passed out of committee and has widespread support from both parties, according to Newell.

The bill is particularly important because testicular cancer tends to impact younger men, he noted.

With any type of cancer, early detection is critical in improving the survival outlook and minimizing the invasiveness of treatment. Testicular cancer is often curable without chemotherapy in its early stages.

However, in about 15 percent to 30 percent of testicular cancer cases diagnosed, the malignant cells have already spread to other parts of the body.

In addition to medical checkups that include a genital inspection by a doctor, regular self-examinations are integral to detecting the disease early, according to the American Urological Association (AUA). The AUA and the American Cancer Society (ACS) recommend people conduct testicular self-exams monthly, likely in the shower, to check for swelling, lumps, pain and changes in color.

You can find good explanations and illustrations of self-exams at testicularcancersociety.org and aballsysenseoftumor.com.

Conducting a regular testicular self-exam might be the last thing on a teenage boy's radar, but Newell hopes this can change.

"A lot of young people don't get diagnosed as early because they're not educated enough to realize something is wrong," Newell said. "They think maybe it's just puberty and they become too embarrassed to talk about it."

Editor's note: Giddy would like to extend thanks to Mike Craycraft at the Testicular Cancer Society for introducing us to Asa Newell.