Testicular Cancer: Statistics

Approved by the Cancer.Net Editorial Board, 03/2023

ON THIS PAGE: You will find information about the estimated number of people who will be diagnosed with testicular cancer each year. You will also read general information on surviving the disease. Remember, survival rates depend on several factors, and no 2 people with cancer are the same. Use the menu to see other pages.

Every person is different, with different factors influencing their risk of being diagnosed with this cancer and the chance of recovery after a diagnosis. It is important to talk with your doctor about any questions you have around the general statistics provided below and what they may mean for you individually. The original sources for these statistics are provided at the bottom of this page.

How many people are diagnosed with testicular cancer?

In 2023, an estimated 9,190 people in the United States will be diagnosed with testicular cancer. About 1 out of every 250 men and boys will be diagnosed with the disease during their lifetime. Worldwide, an estimated 74,458 people were diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2020.

Testicular cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men between the ages of 20 and 34. In 2020, there were an estimated 3,000 new cases of the disease in the United States among people aged 20 to 29 and 3,100 new cases in the United States among people aged 30 to 39.

The average age of diagnosis is 33. However, the disease can occur at any age. Approximately 6% of cases are diagnosed in children and teens. An estimated 8% of cases are diagnosed in men 56 or older.

For unknown reasons, the number of testicular cancer cases has increased for many decades. However, the rate of increase has slowed down recently.

It is estimated that 470 deaths from this disease will occur in the United States in 2023. These deaths are either from cancer that spread from the testicles to other parts of the body and could not be effectively treated with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and/or surgery or from complications from treatment. In 2020, an estimated 9,334 people worldwide died from testicular cancer.

What is the survival rate for testicular cancer?

There are different types of statistics that can help doctors evaluate a person’s chance of recovery from testicular cancer. These are called survival statistics. A specific type of survival statistic is called the relative survival rate. It is often used to predict how having cancer may affect life expectancy. Relative survival rate looks at how likely people with testicular cancer are to survive for a certain amount of time after their initial diagnosis or start of treatment compared to the expected survival of similar people without this cancer.

Example: Here is an example to help explain what a relative survival rate means. Please note this is only an example and not specific to this type of cancer. Let’s assume that the 5-year relative survival rate for a specific type of cancer is 90%. “Percent” means how many out of 100. Imagine there are 1,000 people without cancer, and based on their age and other characteristics, you expect 900 of the 1,000 to be alive in 5 years. Also imagine there are another 1,000 people similar in age and other characteristics as the first 1,000, but they all have the specific type of cancer that has a 5-year survival rate of 90%. This means it is expected that 810 of the people with the specific cancer (90% of 900) will be alive in 5 years.

It is important to remember that statistics on the survival rates for people with testicular cancer are only an estimate. They cannot tell an individual person if cancer will or will not shorten their life. Instead, these statistics describe trends in groups of people previously diagnosed with the same disease, including specific stages of the disease.

The 5-year relative survival rate for testicular cancer in the United States is 95%.

The survival rates for testicular cancer vary based on several factors. These include the stage of cancer, a person’s age and general health, and how well the treatment plan works.

The survival rate is higher for people diagnosed with early-stage cancer and lower for those with later-stage cancer. For testicular cancer that has not spread beyond the testicles (stage 1), the 5-year relative survival rate is 99%.

For testicular cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes in the back of the abdomen, called the retroperitoneal lymph nodes, the 5-year relative survival rate is 96%. But this depends on the size of the lymph nodes with cancer.

For testicular cancer that has spread outside the testicles to areas beyond the retroperitoneal lymph nodes, such as to the lungs or other organs, the 5-year relative survival rate is 73%.  

Experts measure relative survival rate statistics for testicular cancer every 5 years. This means the estimate may not reflect the results of advancements in how testicular cancer is diagnosed or treated from the last 5 years. Talk with your doctor if you have any questions about this information. Learn more about understanding statistics.

Statistics adapted from the American Cancer Society's (ACS) publications, Cancer Facts & Figures 2023 and Cancer Facts & Figures 2020, the ACS website, the International Agency for Research on Cancer website, and the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program. (All sources accessed March 2023.)

The next section in this guide is Medical Illustrations. It offers drawings of body parts often affected by testicular cancer. Use the menu to choose a different section to read in this guide.