A cough or shortness of breath may indicate the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes in your chest area. If you experience unusual pain or discomfort in your back or lower abdomen, the cancer may have spread to the lymph nodes in the back of your abdomen. If the cancer has spread outside of the testicles, symptoms may appear elsewhere. Since this is where the cancer starts, this would be the first place to check. The most common symptom of testicular cancer, and probably the most alarming, is a lump on a testicle. What are the symptoms of testicular cancer? When detected early, over 90% of testicular cancer patients can be cured in a single treatment. The risk may be high, but the survival rate is even higher. While it only accounts of 1% of all cancers, it is the number one cancer in men ages 20-34.