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Maternal Smoking and Testicular Germ Cell Tumors

¹ Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, Maryland; ² Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; ³ U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, Silver Spring, Maryland; and ⁴ Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, Maryland

Requests for reprints: Katherine A. McGlynn, Hormonal and Reproductive Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Department of Health and Human Services, EPS-7060, 6120 Executive Boulevard, Rockville, MD 20892-7234. Phone: 301-435-4918; Fax: 301-402-0916. E-mail: mcglynnk{at}mail.nih.gov

Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT) are the most common cancer among men ages 15 to 35 years in the United States. The well-established TGCT risk factors cryptorchism, prior diagnosis of TGCT, and family history of testicular cancer indicate that exposures in early life and/or in the familial setting may be critical to determining risk. Previous reports of familial clustering of lung cancer in mothers and testicular cancers in sons suggest that passive smoking in childhood may be such an exposure. To clarify the relationship of passive smoking exposure to TGCT risk, data from 754 cases and 928 controls enrolled in the Servicemen's Testicular Tumor Environmental and Endocrine Determinants study were analyzed. Data from 1,086 mothers of the cases and controls were also examined. Overall, there was no relationship between maternal [odds ratio (OR), 1.1; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.9-1.3] or paternal smoking (OR, 1.0; 95% CI, 0.8-1.3) and TGCT risk. Although living with a nonparent smoker was marginally related to risk (OR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.0-2.1), there was no relationship with number of smokers, amount smoked, or duration of smoking. Responses from both case-control participants and mothers also revealed no relationship between either maternal smoking while pregnant or while breast-feeding. Results did not differ by TGCT histology (seminoma, nonseminoma). These results do not support the hypothesis that passive smoking, either in utero or in childhood, is related to risk of TGCT. Other early life exposures, however, may explain the familial clustering of lung cancer in mothers and TGCT in sons. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006;15(10):1820–4)

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