Testicular Cancer May Raise Risk of Prostate Tumors

ORLANDO, Fla.—Men with a history of testicular cancer may be at elevated risk of prostate cancer (PCa), according to a new study presented at the 2015 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

In a case-control study of 32,435 men with a history of testicular cancer and 147,044 controls with a history of melanoma, researchers found that the incidence of PCa was 12.6% in the testicular cancer group compared with 2.8% in the control group. The incidence of intermediate- and high-risk PCa also was elevated in the testicular cancer group compared with controls (5.8% vs. 1.1%).

Compared with the control group, the testicular cancer group had a significant 4.7 times increased risk of PCa overall and a 5.5 times increased risk of intermediate- or high-risk PCa, the investigators reported. The associations persisted even after adjusting for race, the researchers said.

The investigators explained that they used melanoma patients as a control arm because, as far as they are aware, there is no known association between melanoma and PCa.

“Men with a history of testicular cancer should talk with their doctor about assessing their risk for prostate cancer, given there may be an increased risk, said senior study author Mohummad Minhaj Siddiqui, MD, assistant professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.

The study excluded men younger than 60 years. The researchers said they only counted PCa incidence if it occurred at least 5 years after the diagnosis of their primary cancer to allow for possible temporal effect of the primary malignancy.

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