Mal Nash, 42, began experiencing back pain in April this year. Initially, he dismissed it as a consequence of years of factory work. As the pain persisted and intensified, he sought medical attention last September.
Doctors initially diagnosed it as common nerve pain and prescribed painkillers. However, his condition steadily worsened; he started to experience leg weakness, lost the ability to walk, and gradually became paralyzed from the waist down.
Sharing about his brother’s illness, Kevin Nash, Mal’s twin brother, stated that Mal’s pain spread from his back straight up to his chest, then to his shoulders.
“After the first visit, my brother started having seizures and couldn’t get off the sofa or go upstairs. The family took him to the emergency room, but the doctors didn’t even examine the painful area. They sent him home and referred him to a physiotherapist,” Kevin shared.
Mal Nash experiencing chronic back pain for six months, mistaking it for overwork, before his diagnosis.
Upon returning home that time, Mal’s condition deteriorated further. He was almost unable to move. The family took him to the emergency room again. This time, doctors examined him and discovered spinal cord compression, necessitating an MRI scan.
The results revealed he had a rare form of testicular cancer called seminoma. The tumor had metastasized to vertebrae T6 and T7, causing spinal cord compression, leading to complete paralysis within just one week.
At the time of diagnosis, Mal was completely paralyzed from the chest down. He underwent emergency spinal surgery with the hope of regaining motor function. However, the operation was unsuccessful. The paralysis might be lifelong.
“Currently, my brother is undergoing chemotherapy to treat the cancer. We hope the treatment will yield good results, even if he cannot move again,” Kevin shared.
GLOBOCAN statistics estimated the total number of new testicular cancer cases globally in 2022 at 72,040, causing over 9,000 deaths.
According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, testicular cancer accounts for 1% of cancers in men. Among patients, this cancer is most common in individuals aged 15 to 45.
The greatest risk factor for increasing the likelihood of developing testicular cancer is cryptorchidism (undescended testicle). Even if the condition has been surgically corrected, the risk remains.
Additionally, those prone to this disease often have a family history of the condition, Klinefelter syndrome (a genetic mutation in males), or HIV/AIDS infection.
Testicular cancer is one of the cancers with the best treatment prognosis, even when it has metastasized. In localized stages, the 5-year survival rate can be up to 100%. In distant metastatic stages, thanks to advanced treatment methods, this figure still reaches high levels, often above 70%, depending on the location and volume of metastasis.
