A team of researchers based at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, has found that men with fertility problems have a slightly increased risk of developing testicular cancer. The results of the study were published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) last week.
The scientists compared the results of semen analyses carried out on 32,000 men between 1963 and 1965 with the incidence of testicular cancer, using the Danish national cancer register. They found 89 cases, implying that the risk of testicular cancer for infertile or subfertile men is 1.6 times higher than in men with no fertility problems. For those with abnormal sperm, the risk increased by two to threefold.
An accompanying editorial in the BMJ suggests that infertility, undescended testicles and testicular cancer may all be linked to abnormal development of the Sertoli cells (the cells that nourish the developing sperm) in the foetus. It also stresses that an increased risk of 1.6 fold is still constitutes a small chance of developing the illness.
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