A recent study revealed that men who suffered from testicular cancer are more likely to develop prostate cancer, however, the overall risk of being diagnosed with an aggressive form of the disease is low.
A case-control study of almost 180,000 men indicated that the incidence of prostate cancer is significantly higher among men with a previous history of testicular cancer (12.6 percent) when compared to men who never suffered with the disease (2.8 percent). According to the results, men who had testicular cancer were more likely to develop intermediate or high-risk prostate cancers.
The study outcomes will be presented during the 2015 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in Orlando. Dr. Mohummad Minhaj Siddiqui, study’s senior author and professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine said in a press release: “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. It is too soon to make any practice recommendations based on this single study, but the findings provide groundwork for further research into the biologic link between the two diseases.”
Scientists assessed Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data that evaluated 32,435 men with a history of testicular cancer plus 147,044 men with records of melanoma as a control group, since there is no known connection between melanoma and prostate cancer. Men with melanoma are expected to have the same probabilities of developing prostate cancer as the rest of the general male population. The results demonstrated that subjects in both groups developed prostate cancer approximately 30 years after they had their first cancer diagnosed.
The total incidence of prostate cancer at the age of 80 years old was significantly higher among those with a previous record of testicular cancer in comparison to control individuals (12.6 versus 2.8 percent). The incidence of intermediate or high-risk prostate cancer was also higher in the testicular cancer group when compared to the control group (5.8 percent versus 1.1 percent).
Nonetheless, Dr. Siddiqui highlighted that the probability of developing intermediate or high-risk prostate cancer is low — about 95 percent of men with records of testicular cancer will not have the disease.