Medical imaging may increase risk of testicular cancer: Study
PHILADELPHIA - Researchers at Penn Medicine have found in a new study that Early exposures to medical imaging can increase men's risk of developing testicular cancer by almost 60%.Early and repeated exposures to diagnostic imaging, such as X-rays and CT scans, may increase the risk of testicular cancer, suggests a new study from Penn Medicine researchers published online today in PLOS ONE.
"The steady rise in testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT) cases over the past three or four decades suggests there is an environmental exposure risk at play, but no definitive risk factor has ever been identified," said senior author Katherine L. Nathanson, MD, deputy director of Penn's Abramson Cancer Center and Pearl Basser Professor of BRCA-Related Research in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "Our data suggests that the increased use of diagnostic radiation below the waist in men over that same time may contribute to the increase in incidence."
Kevin Nead, MD, who conducted the study while in the department of Radiation Oncology at Penn and is now at MD Anderson Cancer Center, serves as the lead author.
Radiation is a known risk factor for cancer due to its ability to damage DNA. When cells are unable to appropriately repair damaged DNA, cancer causing genetic mutations may result.
TGCT is the most common cancer in the United States and Europe in men between the ages of 15 and 45. The incidence rate has increased from about three out 100,000 men in 1975 to six out of 100,000 men today. Nearly 9,500 cases will be diagnosed by the end of the 2020.
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