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Pot increases testicular cancer risk

SEATTLE, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Being a marijuana smoker at the time of diagnosis was associated with a 70 percent increased risk of testicular cancer, U.S. researchers said.

Researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle said that the risk was particularly elevated -- about twice that of those who never smoked marijuana -- for those who used marijuana at least weekly or who had long-term exposure to the substance beginning in adolescence.

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Study author Stephen M. Schwartz said the results also suggested that the association with marijuana use might be limited to nonseminoma -- a fast-growing testicular malignancy that tends to strike early, between ages 20 and 35 -- and accounts for about 40 percent of all testicular-cancer cases.

"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," Schwartz said in a statement.

"What young men should know is that first, we know very little about the long-term health consequences of marijuana smoking, especially heavy marijuana smoking; and second, our study provides some evidence that testicular cancer could be one adverse consequence."

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The study, published online in the journal Cancer, said that other risk factors for testicular cancer include a family history of the disease and undescended testes and abnormal testicular development.

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