Body Size, Dairy Consumption, Puberty, and Risk of Testicular Germ Cell Tumors

Abstract

The etiology of testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) is poorly understood, with cryptorchidism and family history being the only well-established risk factors. Body size, age at puberty, and dairy consumption, however, have been suggested to be related to TGCTs. To clarify the relation of these variables to TGCT risk and to one another, the authors analyzed data from 767 cases and 928 controls enrolled in the Servicemen's Testicular Tumor Environmental and Endocrine Determinants Study (2002-2005). Overall, increased height was significantly related to risk (odds ratio (OR) = 1.83, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.36, 2.45), though body mass index was not (OR = 1.06, 95% CI: 0.66, 1.69). There was no association with age at puberty, based on ages at first shaving (OR = 1.29, 95% CI: 0.96, 1.73), voice changing (OR = 0.97, 95% CI: 0.71, 1.32), and nocturnal emissions (OR = 1.00, 95% CI: 0.73, 1.37). Similarly, there was no relation with dairy consumption at any age between birth and 12th grade. These results suggest that height is a risk factor for TGCTs, but the relation is unlikely explained by childhood dairy consumption. As adult height is largely determined in the first 2 years of life, increased attention to events in this interval may help elucidate the etiology of TGCTs.

Risk of testicular germ-cell tumours in relation to childhood physical activity

“…If all cases (n ¼ 767) and controls (n ¼ 928) were included in the analysis of sons' data, regardless of whether their mother had returned a completed questionnaire, the estimates remained statistically nonsignificant. Also, although height has previously been reported to be positively associated with TGCT risk in this study (McGlynn et al, 2007), it was not associated with childhood physical activity (all P40.05) and was, therefore, not included in the fully adjusted model.…”

“…Details of the US STEED Study have been published elsewhere (McGlynn et al, 2007). Briefly, between April 2002 and January 2005 participants aged 18 -45 years with at least one serum sample stored in the Department of Defense Serum Repository (DoDSR, Silver Spring, MD, USA) were eligible for enrollment.…”

“…The US Servicemen's Testicular Tumor Environmental and Endocrine Determinants (STEED) Study was used to investigate whether childhood physical activity was associated with risk of TGCT and its two histologic subtypes of seminoma and nonseminoma. (McGlynn et al, 2007). Briefly, between April 2002 and January 2005 participants aged 18 -45 years with at least one serum sample stored in the Department of Defense Serum Repository (DoDSR, Silver Spring, MD, USA) were eligible for enrollment.…”

Tallness is associated with risk of testicular cancer: evidence for the nutrition hypothesis

“…It is unique in three ways: first, it is by far the largest study to date; second, it included the highest risk ever reported; finally, there is a linear trend with increments of height whereas a distinctly decreased risk is found with short stature. The overall relative risk (OR) is 3.35 whereas previous OR ranged from 1.83 to 2.11 (Dieckmann and Pichlmeier, 2002;Swerdlow et al, 1989;McGlynn et al, 2007). It can be noted that GCT patients exceeded controls with respect to all the statistical measures of height, with both histological subgroups of GCT showing similar associations.…”

Understanding Microbe-Induced Cancers

“…Parallel phenomena involving androgens could promote testicular cancers, which are increasing in incidence (31,32). The documented relationships between body size, height, and testicular cancer (33,34) could be mediated by changes in the indigenous microbiota (35). Another potential example of proposed class C-associated phenomena is the markedly increased risk in postmodern societies of esophageal adenocarcinoma (36), which has a clear environmental etiology.…”