Abstract
BackgroundTesticular germ cell tumours (TGCT) are the most frequent cancers in young men in developed countries and their incidence rate has doubled worldwide over the past 40 years. Early life exposures to pesticides are suspected to increase TGCT risk. Our research aimed at estimating adult TGCT risk associated with parental domestic use of pesticides during early periods of child development.MethodsWe conducted a case-control study of 304 TGCT cases, aged 18–45 years old, recruited in 20 French university hospitals, and 274 controls frequency-matched on hospital and birth year. Participants’ mothers provided information on their domestic use of pesticides from 1 year before start of pregnancy to 1 year after their son’s birth, for gardening activities, treatment of indoor plants, pets, wood and mold, and pest control. Odds ratios (OR) for TGCT (overall and by histological subtype) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using conditional logistic regression.ResultsPrevalence of reported domestic use of pesticides was 77.3% for insecticides, 15.9% for fungicides and 12.1% for herbicides. While no association was found for any use of insecticides (OR = 1.27, CI = 0.80–2.01) or herbicides (OR = 1.15, CI = 0.67–2.00), elevated risks of TGCT overall (OR = 1.73, CI = 1.04–2.87) and non-seminoma subtype (OR = 2.44, CI = 1.26–4.74) were observed for any use of fungicides. When specific purposes were examined, using fungicides and/or insecticides for woodwork (OR = 2.35, CI = 1.06–5.20) and using insecticides on cats and dogs (OR = 1.95, CI = 1.12–3.40) were associated with increased risk of non-seminoma subtype. We found no association for seminoma subtype.ConclusionsAlthough recall bias may partially explain the elevated ORs, our study provides some evidence of a positive association between domestic use of pesticides during early periods of development, particularly fungicides and risk of adult TGCT and non-seminoma. Given the common domestic use of pesticides in France, further research on TGCT risk is warranted.
Highlights
Testicular germ cell tumours (TGCT) are the most frequent cancers in young men in developed countries and their incidence rate has doubled worldwide over the past 40 years
We observed statistically significant increased TGCT risk (OR = 1.73, confidence intervals (CI) = 1.04–2.87) and NS risk (OR = 2.44, CI = 1.26–4.74) for the domestic use of fungicides, while no association was found for SE
Analysis was restricted to subjects with no missing data for the exposure variable (0.2 to 1.4% excluded) b P-value for heterogeneity derived from the Likelihood Ratio Test, comparing seminoma versus non-seminoma tumours the observed associations with domestic use of fungicides (OR = 1.82, CI = 1.09–3.03) (Table S11). In this French case-control study, domestic use of fungicides during early periods of development was found positively associated with increased risk of TGCT in the sons, driven by an association with the histological subtype NS, while no association was found for domestic use of insecticides and herbicides
Summary
Testicular germ cell tumours (TGCT) are the most frequent cancers in young men in developed countries and their incidence rate has doubled worldwide over the past 40 years. While overall testicular germ-cell tumours (TGCT) are a rare cancer, accounting for 1% of all neoplasms, these are the most common cancer occurring in young men aged 15 to 45 years in developed countries, in particular among Caucasian populations. Their incidence rate has importantly increased over the past 40 years [1,2,3]. Environmental exposures to pesticides with endocrine disrupting properties have been suggested to be determinants of TGCT [8, 9]
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