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Gestational age at birth and risk of testicular cancer
International Journal of Cancer, 04/26/2012
Crump C et al. – Extreme but not later preterm birth may be independently associated with testicular cancer in later life.
Methods- We conducted a national cohort study of 354,860 men born in Sweden in 1973–1979, including 19,214 born preterm (gestational age < 37 weeks) of whom 1,279 were born extremely preterm (22–29 weeks), followed for testicular cancer incidence through 2008.
- A total of 767 testicular cancers (296 seminomas and 471 nonseminomatous germ cell tumors) were identified in 11.2 million person-years of follow-up.
- Extreme preterm birth was associated with an increased risk of testicular cancer (hazard ratio = 3.95; 95% confidence interval = 1.67–9.34) after adjusting for other perinatal factors, family history of testicular cancer and cryptorchidism.
- Only five cases (three seminomas and two nonseminomas) occurred among men born extremely preterm, limiting the precision of risk estimates.
- No association was found between later preterm birth, post-term birth or low or high fetal growth and testicular cancer.
