TESTICULAR CANCER AND SPERMATOGENESIS

We retrospectively analysed the characteristics of 54 men with testicu lar cancer, The group comprised 32 men with pure seminoma and 22 with non-seminoma germ cell tumours (NSGCT), This group was further compare d to 190 healthy sperm donor candidates, Sperm quality was found to be higher in the seminoma versus the NSGCT patients in: sperm concentrat ion [50 (0-230) versus 17 (0-288) x 10(6)/ml, P < 0.001], total motile sperm counts (TMC) [57 (0-508) versus 12 (0-854) x 10(6)/ejaculate, P = 0.002], post-thaw forward motile concentration [3 (0-28) versus 1.7 (0-17) x 10(6)/ml, P = 0.003] and motility percentage [20 (0-57) vers us 12.5 (0-42) %, P = 0.002], Serum hormone concentrations did not dif fer between these two sub-groups, although the follicle stimulating ho rmone concentrations were higher than normal in both (14.6 +/- 2.5 ver sus 10.4 +/- 1.4 mIU/ml, P > 0.05), As is well documented, cancer pati ents were found to have lower sperm quality compared to healthy candid ates, The existence of these differences, and the fact that testicular cancer affects spermatogenesis, indicated that the mechanisms involve d in the deterioration of sperm quality can, at least partially, be at tributed to the type and origin of the malignant cancer, The higher sp erm counts in the seminoma group may be related to the fact that the r esemblance of the seminoma cells to normal germ cells is greater than that of the NSGCT cells, and therefore they retain a better capacity t o function, Due to modern assisted reproductive technologies and micro manipulation achievements, the lower yield of spermatozoa in severe ca ses is no longer a major obstacle to offering cryopreservation to thes e patients.