Testicular cancer high among sub-fertile Male

Emobileclinic Researchers’ corner

The risk of developing a testicular cancer is high among men with sub infertility as found in a recent research from the University of Utah . The researchers looked at the incidence of common forms of cancer in males and discovered that sub-fertile men i.e. those who have undergone semen analysis as part of an examination for infertility are at greater risk of developing testicular cancer than fertile men.
SHARE (Subfertility Health and Assisted Reproduction)  is the first study to explore the associations between sperm viability and motility and cancer risk as well as the first study to calculate the cancer risk of men seen in a fertility clinic compared to the fertile controls, according to ASRM press release.

The researchers looked into 40,866 male : sub infertile and fertile, 50% (20,433) of whom had done semen analysis between 1999 to 2011 before they came to this conclusion. The researchers said the risk of cancer and sub infertility vary according to semen deficiency. The study however found no increase risk among sub fertile men with absence of sperm at ejaculation (azoospermia) . Among the sub fertile male with oligozoospermia –an abnormally low concentration or number of sperm,  the risk of testicular cancer increased by 10 times. While the risk of subfertility in the Sub fertility group was 3 times the normal . Testicular cancer risk was observed to increase also ”with declining values for other semen parameters: sperm motility, viability, and total motile sperm count ,” said Dr. Hanson Heidi of department of Family and Prevention Medicine, University of Utah,Salt Lake City Italian.

Among the fertile group the researchers observed a strange relationship with a set of fertile men with hyperzoospermic semen. These are men with equal or more than 90 percentiles sperm count. The risk of melanoma in these men increased by 2 times. In both groups, the researchers recorded 421 cancer cases noting that melanoma, testicular, and prostate cancers were the commonest.

“This study provides new insights that will help us deliver better patient care and provides a strong foundation for the research needed identify, and ultimately address, underlying physiologic problems that may lead to infertility or cancer,” said Robert Oates, MD, member of ASRM’s Board of Directors and a Past President of the Society for Male Reproduction and Urology.

Source
ASRM, Press release