ESTROGEN-RELATED CANCER RISK IN MOTHERS OF TESTICULAR-CANCER PATIENTS

The belief that oestrogens are involved in the pathogenesis both of te sticular cancer in young men and of cancers of the endometrium and fem ale breast has become widespread. In a search for possible hormonal li nks between these cancers, we investigated the cancer pattern in a coh ort of women who had given birth to sons who developed testicular canc er. Particular focus was given to oestrogen-related cancers. The prese nt retrospective population-based cohort study is based on data from t he Danish Cancer Registry. Mothers of 2,204 testicular-cancer patients were followed for the occurrence of cancer over a total of 70,063 per son years. The ratio of observed cancers in the cohort over the expect ed numbers based on cancer incidence in the underlying female populati on served as measure of the relative risk (RR). The RR of developing b reast cancer among mothers of testicular-cancer patients was 0.8 (95% confidence interval 0.6-1.1), the relative risk of endometrial cancer 0.6 (0.3-1.0) and of ovarian cancer 1.0 (0.6-1.6). Mothers of testicul ar-cancer patients are not at increased risk of developing oestrogen-r elated cancers. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.