The International Testicular Cancer Linkage Consortium: a clinicopathologic descriptive analysis of 461 familial malignant testicular germ cell tumor kindred.
OBJECTIVE
Familial aggregation of testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT) has been reported, but it is unclear if familial TGCT represents a unique entity with distinct clinicopathologic characteristics. Here we describe a collection of familial TGCT cases from an international consortium, in an effort to elucidate any clinical characteristics that are specific to this population.


METHODS
Families with >or=2 cases of TGCT enrolled at 18 of the sites participating in the International Testicular Cancer Linkage Consortium were included. We analyzed clinicopathologic characteristics of 985 cases from 461 families.


RESULTS
A majority (88.5%) of families had only 2 cases of TGCT. Men with seminoma (50% of cases) had an older mean age at diagnosis than nonseminoma cases (P = 0.001). Among individuals with a history of cryptorchidism, TGCT was more likely to occur in the ipsilateral testis (kappa = 0.65). Cousin pairs appeared to represent a unique group, with younger age at diagnosis and a higher prevalence of cryptorchidism than other families.


CONCLUSIONS
Clinicopathologic characteristics in these familial TGCT cases were similar to those generally described for nonfamilial cases. However, we observed a unique presentation of familial TGCT among cousin pairs. Additional studies are needed to further explore this observation.
Mai
Phuong L
PL
Clinical Genetics Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD 20852, USA. maip@mail.nih.gov
Friedlander
Michael
M
Tucker
Kathy
K
Phillips
Kelly-Anne
KA
Hogg
David
D
Jewett
Michael A S
MA
Lohynska
Radka
R
Daugaard
Gedske
G
Richard
Stéphane
S
Bonaïti-Pellié
Catherine
C
Heidenreich
Axel
A
Albers
Peter
P
Bodrogi
Istvan
I
Geczi
Lajos
L
Olah
Edith
E
Daly
Peter A
PA
Guilford
Parry
P
Fosså
Sophie D
SD
Heimdal
Ketil
K
Liubchenko
Ludmila
L
Tjulandin
Sergei A
SA
Stoll
Hans
H
Weber
Walter
W
Easton
Douglas F
DF
Dudakia
Darshna
D
Huddart
Robert
R
Stratton
Michael R
MR
Einhorn
Lawrence
L
Korde
Larissa
L
Nathanson
Katherine L
KL
Bishop
D Timothy
DT
Rapley
Elizabeth A
EA
Greene
Mark H
MH
D000328:Adult; D003456:Cryptorchidism / Q000235:genetics; D006552:Hernia, Inguinal / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009373:Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D013736:Testicular Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*