Summary.-Data from the Los Angeles County Cancer Surveillance Program (CSP) from 1972 to 1975 were used to study the descriptive epidemiology of testicular cancer and prostatic cancer. The very high black/white ratio and late age peak of cancer of the prostate contrasted sharply with the very low ratio and early age peak of testicular cancer. However, both sites had higher rates among upper occupational and social class groupings. Available descriptive and analytical research suggests that the etiology of prostatic cancer is most probably related to hormonal influences rather than to a horizontally transmitted agent, while the etiology of testicular cancer is most probably related to endogenous or exogenous hormonal influences in utero or in infancy, or to in utero exposure to other exogenous agents.

The authors examined the interaction of exposure to various numbers of sex partners and evidence of antibodies to herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) in cervical neoplasia in 181 cases of cervical dysplasia, carcinoma in situ and cancer of the cervix and 130 control patients in Los Angeles County, California hospitals, in 1974-1979. Studies by the authors and other investigators have found that risk of cancer of the cervix was enhanced with numbers of sex partners, frequency and duration of using the vaginal douche, early age at first pregnancy, and antibodies to HSV-2 as measured by radioimmunoassay. In this study, it was found that for women with only one or no sex partner in their history, risk was elevated if evidence of antibodies to HSV-2 were present. The same was true for women with two or more sex partners. The risk associated with two or more sex partners was not higher than that for women with one sex partner among those positive for HSV-2, and among those negative for HSV-2. Thus, although this inquiry needs replication on larger numbers of women, whatever the other microorganisms or carcinogens patients were exposed to with multiple sex partners, there was no apparent effect beyond the fact that HSV-2 raises the risk of cancer of the cervix. This may strengthen credence in the hypothesis that HSV-2 is an etiologic factor in cervical cancer.

No abstract