Pot ups chances for testicular cancer: Study

Pot, cancer, ups, Study, chances

http://www.canada.com/news/chanc ... /1270664/story.html

WASHINGTON - Smoking marijuana may increase the risk of testicular cancer by as much as 70 per cent, a study published on Monday suggested.

The report - carried out by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and published in the website of the journal Cancer on Monday - showed an elevated risk for long-term or frequent smokers.

After interviewing 369 men aged 18 to 44 who had been diagnosed with the disease, the authors concluded that those smoking marijuana at least once a week, or over an extended period since adolescence, had twice the risk compared to those who had never inhaled.

"Our study is not the first to suggest that some aspect of a man's lifestyle or environment is a risk factor for testicular cancer, but it is the first that has looked at marijuana use," said Stephen Schwartz, an epidemiologist and one of the report's principle authors.

Schwartz and his colleagues found that being a marijuana smoker at the time of diagnosis was associated with a 70 per cent increased risk in the most aggressive form of testicular cancer.

Although the disease is rare, and often treatable, incidents of the most common types of testicular cancer have grown by three to six per cent per year since the 1950s in the western world, at the same time as marijuana smoking has become more common.

Researchers believe that chronic marijuana exposure has multiple affects on the reproductive system, including decreased sperm quality - which has also been linked with testicular cancer.

Testicular cancer is the most common form of cancer among American males aged 15 to 34, according to the Mayo Clinic.