Adam Reczkowski, 41, testicular cancer, Dedham, and Atish Choudhury, MD, PhD, Clinical Investigator in the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, and Chair of the Gelb Center for Translational Research, Instructor in Medicine, Dana-Farber

“It was nothing to worry about,” Andrew was repeatedly told, when he visited urgent care twice for pain in his pelvis area. But the discomfort wouldn’t go away, so he met with his primary care physician who referred him to a urologist for an ultrasound. The scans led to a testicular cancer diagnosis in early 2023. It was caught early enough, and he was told there was a good prognosis. The cancer had only spread very lightly to his lymph nodes. Adam works as the director of data analytics for a pharmaceutical company. He loves vacationing with his family, watching his children play their sports (soccer for his son Jacob and gymnastics for his daughter Julia) and caring for his 2004 BMW. He hopes to help normalize conversations around testicular cancer for other men so they can overcome stigmas and shame around it. Today, he and his wife Kara are celebrating their wedding anniversary. Dr. Atish Choudhury is a medical oncologist and clinical/translational investigator within the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and currently serves as Chair of the Gelb Center for Translational Research. He also serves as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His research interests include investigation of genetic and epigenetic biomarkers from circulating free DNA from patients with metastatic cancer, biomarker studies from other banked human specimens from patients participating in clinical trials, and clinical investigation in novel therapeutics for genitourinary malignancies. According to the American Cancer Society, testicular cancer is not common. About 1 of every 250 males will develop testicular cancer at some point during their lifetime. The American Cancer Society’s estimate for testicular cancer in the United States for 2024 is about 9,760 new cases of testicular cancer diagnosed. The average age of males when first diagnosed with testicular cancer is about 33. This is largely a disease of young and middle-aged men, but about 6% of cases occur in children and teens, and about 8% occur in men older than 55.