'Burned-Out' primary testicular tumour: Is retroperitoneal lymph node biopsy mandatory prior to initiation of chemotherapy? Report of three cases and a review of the literature.

The term 'burned-out' tumour of the testis describes a spontaneously and completely regressed testicular tumour that presents at the stage of metastasis. We report three cases of burned-out testicular tumour to illustrate their clinical, radiological and histopathological features and to discuss the hypothesis of the efficacy of early adjuvant chemotherapy without a previous retroperitoneal lymph node biopsy. Subsequent to radical orchiectomy, each pathohistology report revealed testicular hypotrophy or microcalcifications, with no clearly visible germ cell tumours within the specimen.