Last updated on August 13, 2020
Question:
There is a hard bump on the top of my right testicle. Should I be concerned?
Answer
Yes. Hard, painless lumps on the surface of the testicle are one of the signs of testicular cancer. A few have pain, discomfort, or swelling with the lump. It is a quick-spreading cancer, so you need to see a doctor as soon as you can. Testicular cancer doubles in size every 10 to 30 days. The cancer is treatable in its early stages with a fair degree of success (96% chance of success). But once it spreads beyond the testicle, the cure rate drops dramatically.
Testicular cancer more often appears in young men than in older men. The reason is that cancer is caused by cells with no control over their growth. Since the testicles grow during the adolescent years, there is a remote possibility that cell growth goes wild. Damage to the testicle, where a man was injured in the groin, might also trigger the occurrence of cancer as the testicle cells must grow to repair the damage.
For some reason it is more common among Caucasians (white skinned people) running about 10 cases for every 100,000 men. Black skinned people typically see less than 1 case for every 100,000 men. In the United States the overall rate is about 4 cases per 100,000 men.
Men who had an undescended testicle have a higher probability of developing testicular cancer.