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Twenty years on, survivors of testicular cancer still have large amounts of
platinum circulating in their blood, from their chemotherapy. A team from the
University of Groningen in the Netherlands examined 61 men who had been treated
with the platinum-containing drug cisplatin. Between 10 and 20 years later the
men had an average of 65 picograms per gram of plasma. Among 20 controls, who
survived testicular cancer without chemotherapy, 18 had no platinum and two had
only traces (The Lancet, vol 355, p 1075). The team says the drug’s
persistence justifies research into long-term side effects.