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Maternal smoking and the epidemic of testicular cancer—A nested case–control study
Author(s) -
Pettersson Andreas,
Akre Olof,
Richiardi Lorenzo,
Ekbom Anders,
Kaijser Magnus
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.22523
Subject(s) - testicular cancer , medicine , pregnancy , incidence (geometry) , nested case control study , cancer , case control study , population , obstetrics , gynecology , gestation , environmental health , genetics , physics , optics , biology
For no apparent reason, the incidence of testicular cancer has increased to epidemic proportions in many countries. Pregnancy smoking has been suggested to be a cause. Previous analytical studies have been negative, but the inherent difficulties in retrospective assessment of this exposure have led to no definite conclusion. We have conducted a population‐based case–control study on 192 cases of testicular germ‐cell cancer—born in Sweden in 1973 onwards and aged ≥15 at cancer diagnosis—and 494 matched controls, where data on maternal smoking were collected during pregnancy. We found no association with testicular cancer for maternal smoking during pregnancy (OR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.64–1.30), and there was no evidence of a dose–response effect. We conclude that the epidemic rise in testicular cancer in many populations is not due to the surge in smoking among women. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.