Double Trouble

Infertile men are more at a 
risk of a certain cancer, reports Biplab Das 

Men who have not fathered a child are at a risk of being afflicted with testicular cancer. Fathers from nuclear families, too, are not free from the danger. A recent study in Denmark reveals that men with low fertility are more prone to testicular cancer than those with high fertility. 

In a recent issue of the British Medical Journal, Henrik Moller, head of the Centre for Research in Health and Social Statistics, who teamed up with Neils E. Skakkeback, professor, National University Hospital at Copenhagen, has described their study linking low fertility to testicular cancer. 

For their study, Moller and his colleague relied heavily upon the cases of testicular cancer recorded in the Danish Cancer Registry. From this information reservoir, he selected men born between 1916 and 1970 who were diagnosed as suffering from testicular cancer during the period from 1986 to 1988. All these men were alive at the time of the study. For a comparative analysis, statistics were collected from the Danish Control Population Registrar. 

Moller then interviewed the patients through letters and over telephone. Specially trained staff asked questions relating to their sexual habits, marriage, education and reproduction. 

Among 698 men with testicular cancer, 584 were contacted and 514 agreed to the interview. Histological data revealed that 262 men had seminoma (radioactive, malignant cancer of testis), 239 had non-seminoma and 13 had unspecified cancer of testis. 

As the results of the study were analysed, Moller's apprehension proved correct. Men who had impregnated a woman at least once in their lives were less likely to be affected by testicular cancer. 

Risk of contracting the disease got reduced with each successive child. Men, who, despite being highly fertile did not sire a child, were also faced with the risk of testicular cancer. 

Low relative fertility, however, is one of the major causes of the disease. Sterility in men had so far been attributed to low sperm count or their impaired mobility. But the latest findings indicate that in most cases male infertility may be caused due to the deficiency of a protein called P34H, normally found on the surface of sperm cells. 

Infertility affects around eight per cent of couples all over the world. While in women it is usually due to hormonal imbalances, only in a miniscule section of infertile men is abnormal hormonal secretion the culprit. High fertility, on the other hand, did not ensure protection from this type of cancer, the study revealed. Moller and his colleague pointed out that factors like mumps orchitis and homosexuality contributed to subfertility, which eventually led to testicular cancer. 

Recent research also shows that the seed of testicular cancer and male subfertility are sown at an early stage, exposing the developing male embryo to different causative agents of hormonal imbalance. As the stage of subfertility is set long before a man attains the capacity to reproduce, researchers can now suggest a medical route to avoid testicular cancer.