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.

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."

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.