TRENDS IN INCIDENCE OF TESTICULAR CANCER IN BOYS AND ADOLESCENT MEN

Several epidemiological studies have described increasing trends over time in the incidence of testicular cancer in adult men. Less attentio n has been given to the trends in young boys, adolescents and old men. This paper describes the incidence of testicular cancer in young boys (0-4 years) and adolescents (15-19 years) in Denmark, Norway and Swed en, and compares these trends with the corresponding data on adults. A lthough only small numbers were available, the data suggest that the i ncidence of testicular cancer in young boys has been constant, at a le vel around 0.5 per 100,000. This observation lends support to the idea that testicular cancer in young boys is aetiologically distinct from testicular cancer in adults. In all three populations we found a parti cularly high average annual increase in the incidence of testicular ca ncer in adolescents (around 6% per year). It is proposed that this inc rease is mainly caused by a secular trend towards earlier age at puber ty. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.