Men with Testicular Cancer More Likely to Develop Prostate Cancer

A new study has shown that men with a history of testicular cancer have a higher incidence of developing prostate cancer, including intermediate or high-risk prostate cancer, compared with those without a history of testicular cancer.

Senior study author Mohummad Minhaj Siddiqui discussed the results of the study during a presscast in advance of the 2015 Genitourinary Cancer Symposium, which will be held in Orlando from Feb. 26 to 28.

“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,” said Siddiqui, an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director of urologic robotic surgery at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center. “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.”

While previous studies have also shown an increased rate of prostate cancer in men with a history of testicular cancer, this is the first study that looked at the likelihood of developing intermediate to high-risk prostate cancer in these patients.

For the study, researchers analyzed SEER data from 32,435 men over the age of 40 with a history of testicular cancer and compared that to a control group of 147,044 men over the age of 40 who had a history of melanoma, since there is no known association between melanoma and prostate cancer.

Intermediate to high-risk prostate cancer was defined by a Gleason score of 7 or that greater than or equal to 8, Siddiqui said.

Out of nearly 180,000 men in this study, it was found that 3,205 were diagnosed with prostate cancer. The analysis showed that the overall incidence of prostate cancer by the age of 80 was 12.6 percent in the men with a history of testicular cancer compared to 2.8 percent of men who didn’t have a history of testicular cancer.

A sub-analysis of men with intermediate to high-grade prostate cancer showed that the incidence of intermediate to high-grade prostate cancer by age 80 was 5.8 percent in the testicular cancer cohort compared to 1.1 percent in the control group.

“Now we looked at alternate risk factors, such as age, race and radiation history and found that even when controlling for the influence of these risk factors, there was still an increased risk of developing intermediate to high-risk prostate cancer in men with a history of testicular cancer as opposed to the control population,” Siddiqui said.

Since the study showed an increased risk of all types of prostate cancer in men with a history of testicular cancer, Siddiqui suggested that men with a history of prostate cancer should discuss the risk and benefits of prostate cancer screening with their doctors.

However, before changing any guidelines or recommendations, further validation studies are needed to confirm the study’s results and to determine if men with a history of testicular cancer should be screened more closely for prostate cancer.