Men suffering from neurodevelopmental disorders are 54% more likely to develop seminoma, a tumour in the testicles, say Swedish scientists, who although unsure what causes the link, suspect it could be genetic.
The research, which compared around 6 100 men with testicular cancer to 61 000 healthy men, found those with neurodevelopmental conditions were also likely to develop problems around four years earlier, and have more advanced cancer on diagnosis, reports The Telegraph.
Ingrid Glimelius, senior consultant at the Department of Oncology at Uppsala University Hospital and professor at Uppsala University, said: “I think that there could be a genetic link between the conditions, that is my strongest hypothesis for the association we found.
“We know that neurodevelopmental disorders are there from when we are born, and I think this speaks in favour of conditions/genetic susceptibility here.
“Testicular cancer is also common in young adults in contrast to so many other malignancies, and indicates that early life exposures and preferably genetics are important in the etiological mechanisms.”
Testicular cancer is the most common form of cancer in young men, and its underlying causes are still largely unknown. Uppsala experts said that overall risk of developing testicular cancer was still very low, with around one in 90 (1.1%) of men with neurodevelopmental conditions being diagnosed, compared with one in 142 of those without the disorders in the study.
It is possible to cure the disease with surgery to remove the tumour, so the researchers said it was important for men to seek care in time if they noticed a lump.
They did not find an increased risk of testicular cancer in patients with a psychiatric diagnosis but they were more likely to die from the disease.
“We also saw that people with a previous psychiatric diagnosis had a slightly increased risk of dying from their testicular cancer compared with people without a previous psychiatric diagnosis, although testicular cancer survival rates were generally very good in both groups,” said Anna Jansson, doctoral student at Uppsala University and physician at Uppsala University Hospital.
The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, is the first to provide a link between neurodevelopmental disorders and the risk of testicular cancer.
Previously known risk factors include having an undescended testicle as a baby or having a father or brother with testicular cancer.
Glimelius added that this disease can be cured in most people today.
Study details
Risk and mortality of testicular cancer in patients with neurodevelopmental or other psychiatric disorders
Anna Jansson, Jonas Söderling, Johan Reutfors, Anna Thor, Camilla Sköld, Gabriella Cohn-Cedermark, Olof Ståhl, Karin Smedby, Andreas Pettersson &
Ingrid Glimelius.
Published in British Journal of Cancer on 24 April 2023
Abstract
Background
Both testicular germ cell tumours (TGCT) and neurodevelopmental disorders are associated with urogenital malformations. Few studies have investigated the association between psychiatric disorders and TGCT. We investigated whether history of any psychiatric or neurodevelopmental disorder is associated with increased risk or mortality of TGCT.
Method
This is a nested case–control study including 6166 TGCT patients diagnosed during 1992–2014, individually matched for age and calendar period to 61,660 controls. We calculated odds ratios (ORs) for the association between type of psychiatric diagnoses and TGCT risk. Among the cases, we used a cohort design and calculated hazard ratios (HRs) of the association between psychiatric diagnose and all-cause and TGCT-specific death.
Results
History of a neurodevelopmental disorder (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disabilities) was associated with an increased risk of seminoma (OR: 1.54; 1.09–2.19). Seminoma patients with neurodevelopmental disorders were younger (34 versus 38 years, p = 0.004) and had more stage IV disease (5.4% versus 1.2%) than those without. Psychiatric history overall was not associated with TGCT. Patient history of any psychiatric disorder was associated with an increased all-cause and TGCT-specific death.
Conclusions
We report an association between neurodevelopmental disorders and testicular seminoma, and an increased TGCT-specific mortality for TGCT patients with psychiatric disorders.
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