[A case-control study of testicular cancer]

A study on the possible association of maternal factors with testicular cancer was undertaken. Information was obtained from the mothers of testicular cancer cases (N = 37) and the mothers of men without the disease (N = 37). Comparisons were made between the two groups. The cases were collected from the records of nine hospitals, and the controls were selected from five Public Health Centers by individually matching the sex and the year of birth with the testicular cancer cases. The mothers of the cases had significantly fewer live births than the mothers of the controls (the adjusted odds ratio per live birth = 0.4, p = 0.02), when the five following variables had been simultaneously adjusted by the logistic regression analysis. Those five variables included the Quetelet's Index of mothers before pregnancy, the age at an index birth, the duration of breastfeeding for an index child, the birth order of an index child, and the number of induced abortions. The endogenous hormonal milieu of a mother may be associated with the occurrence of testicular cancer in her child.