Trends in incidence of testicular cancer in boys and adolescent men.
Several epidemiological studies have described increasing trends over time in the incidence of testicular cancer in adult men. Less attention has been given to the trends in young boys, adolescents and old men. This paper describes the incidence of testicular cancer in young boys (0-4 years) and adolescents (15-19 years) in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and compares these trends with the corresponding data on adults. Although only small numbers were available, the data suggest that the incidence of testicular cancer in young boys has been constant, at a level around 0.5 per 100,000. This observation lends support to the idea that testicular cancer in young boys is aetiologically distinct from testicular cancer in adults. In all three populations we found a particularly high average annual increase in the incidence of testicular cancer in adolescents (around 6% per year). It is proposed that this increase is mainly caused by a secular trend towards earlier age at puberty.
Møller
H
H
Unit of Carcinogen Identification and Evaluation, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France.
Jørgensen
N
N
Forman
D
D
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D011627:Puberty; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D013736:Testicular Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*