Testicular cancer is a dire medical risk in contemporary society; the rate of incidence in non-Hispanic men has increased drastically over the past 40 years, effectively doubling what it was. Currently, it is the most current form of cancer in young men and affects 7 out of every 100000 white American males each year.
Research conducted at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has discovered variation centred around two genes which appears to be related to increased incidence of testicular cancer. According to K.L. Nathanson, a specialist in medical genetics at the Abramson Cancer Centre, ‘Despite being quite heritable, there really have not been any clear genetic risk factor that can account for most cases of testicular cancer’ (Nathanson, 2009). It was found that men possessing two copies of the common version of the ligand KITLG are 4.5 times more likely than men with less common versions of the gene to be at risk of testicular cancer. The location of the gene also seems important, with men possessing two copies of the more common KITLG gene in close proximity to the SPRY4 gene having a 1.48 increase in chance of developing the cancer. The gene is further linked to skin pigmentation and fertility and may explain why the likelihood in white males is much higher than in colored individuals, and why testicular cancer is often linked to infertility.
To understand the importance of these findings, one must compare them to genes linked to other cancers. Genes linked to breast, colon or prostate cancers increase the risk by 10-25%, while possessing the common KITGL gene increases the risk of testicular cancer risk by a massive 300%. Future research will focus on exploring why some men with the high risk genes develop the cancer and others do not; it has been suggested that these findings will provide an integral framework for exploring and understanding how environmental factors influence the development of the cancer. Certainly, this research represents a major milestone in eventually understanding and minimizing the risk of testicular cancer.
Sources:
Nathanson, K.L., Kanetsky, et al. (2009) ‘Genetic Risk Factors For Testicular Cancer Discovered by Penn Researchers’, Medical News Today (online), http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/152036.php, last accessed 1st June 2009
http://www.testicularcancergroup.org/images/testicular_cancer/testicular_cancer_250x251.jpg
posted by Matthew Hearn, 42027294
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