Maternal hormone levels and perinatal characteristics: implications for testicular cancer.
OBJECTIVE
It was hypothesized that the risk for testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) is associated with maternal hormone levels. To examine the hypothesis, some studies used perinatal factors as surrogates for hormone levels. To determine the validity of this assumption, hormone-perinatal factor relationships were examined in the Collaborative Perinatal Project.


METHODS
Maternal estradiol, estriol, and testosterone levels in first- and third-trimester serum samples were correlated with perinatal factors in 300 mothers representative of populations at high (white Americans) or low (black Americans) risk for TGCT.


RESULTS
For white participants, testosterone levels were associated negatively with maternal height (p < 0.01) and age (p = 0.02) and positively with maternal weight (p = 0.02) and body mass index (BMI; p < 0.01), whereas estradiol levels were associated negatively with height (p = 0.03) and positively with son's birth weight (p = 0.04). For black participants, estriol levels were associated negatively with maternal weight (p = 0.01), BMI (p = 0.02), and gestational age p < 0.01) and positively with son's birth weight (p < 0.01), length (p = 0.04), and head circumference (p = 0.03).


CONCLUSIONS
These findings indicate that use of perinatal characteristics as surrogates for hormone levels should be limited to a specific ethnic group. For white men, previously reported associations of TGCT with maternal weight and age may be caused by lower maternal testosterone levels.
Zhang
Yawei
Y
Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health/DHHS, 6120 Executive Boulevard, Rockville, MD 20852, USA.
Graubard
Barry I
BI
Longnecker
Matthew P
MP
Stanczyk
Frank Z
FZ
Klebanoff
Mark A
MA
McGlynn
Katherine A
KA
D001741:Black or African American; D004958:Estradiol / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D004964:Estriol / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D018743:Perinatal Care; D011247:Pregnancy; D023121:RNA, Messenger, Stored; D013736:Testicular Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology; D013739:Testosterone / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D014481:United States; D044465:White People
D023121:RNA, Messenger, Stored; D013739:Testosterone; D004958:Estradiol; D004964:Estriol