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.
Van den Eeden
S K
SK
Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington 98104.
Weiss
N S
NS
Strader
C H
CH
Daling
J R
JR
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009373:Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013736:Testicular Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014861:Washington / Q000453:epidemiology