A 36 year old previously fit and healthy non-smoker Caucasian male underwent left orchidectomy for a testicular tumour (Fig. 1) with AFP (alpha fetoprotein) levels of 9.7 IU/ml (reference range [RR] <10 IU/ml) and BHCG (beta human chorionic gonadotrophin) levels of <1.0 IU/L (RR < 5.0 IU/L), which turned out to be a T2N0M0 stage 1 embryonal carcinoma with vascular invasion but no local or distant metatstasis on follow-up CT (computed tomography) scan. The gene discussed is AFP; the disease is embryonal carcinoma.