Occupation and the occurrence of testicular cancer

To investigate what role a man's occupation may have on his risk of testicular cancer, we conducted a case-control study among noncryptorchid white males who were between 20 and 69 years of age and resided in western Washington State. Cases were men in whom a germ cell tumor of the testis was diagnosed between 1977 and 1984 (n = 323). Their occupational histories were compared to those of controls of the same age, race, and geographic area who were selected through random-digit dialing (n = 658). Administrators/managers (relative risk (RR) = 1.5), salesmen (RR = 1.5), electricians (RR = 2.8), and sailors and fishermen (RR = 3.1) were among the jobs reported more commonly by cases than controls. The risk among farmers/farm managers was also elevated (RR = 1.9), but not that among farm workers (RR = 0.6). No consistent association between any one occupation and testicular cancer has been observed across studies of this topic. The most frequent observation has been an over-representation among cases of certain types of white collar worker; this may reflect the influence of some other aspect of socioeconomic status and not occupational exposures per se.