Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of testicular cancer in the newborn

Maternal smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of testicular cancer in male newborns, say epidemiologists analyzed data from cancer registries Nordic and European surveys.

The parallelism between the development of testicular cancer in men and cancers of the bladder and lung cancer in women, and is now proven that testicular cancer in situ develops in utero, led Dr. Andreas Pettersson and colleagues at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm to the theory that maternal smoking during pregnancy is responsible for the increased prevalence of testicular cancer.

The researchers explain in the journal "International Journal of Cancer" they analyzed data from the Nordic Cancer Registry, detailing the smoking habits of women of childbearing age children (25-29 years) between 1920 and 1940 and those of men aged 30 to 34 years during the same period.

They also collected information on the prevalence of testicular cancer in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, for cohorts of men aged 20 to 34 years, born 28 years after the cohorts of women studied.

The correlation between maternal smoking during pregnancy and the incidence of testicular cancer in their son was particularly high in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, but much less pronounced in Finland, say the authors.

They explain that the studies in this country were of lower quality and therefore does not allow such a detailed analysis.

No association between paternal smoking and the incidence of testicular cancer has however was observed.

Tobacco smoke can reduce the rate of hormones produced during pregnancy, placental blood flow and fetal growth delay, suggests Dr. Petterson. Carcinogens present in cigarette smoke can indeed cross the placenta.

"If testicular development is disrupted or delayed, this can result in neoplastic transformation or cause fertility problems and malformations of male urogenital tract," he said. And if maternal smoking during pregnancy is actually a cause of testicular cancer in boys born to these mothers, part of the current trend of increased incidence of this type of cancer and then find an explanation, especially a means of prevention.