Knowledge and early detection of testicular germ cell cancer among adolescents and young adults

Abstract

Malignant testicular germ cell tumors are the most common tumor disease in young men, affecting not only the period of his reproductive phase but also creating acomplex life situation. Therapy includes the risk of development of second neoplasia and sequelae. However, particularly in this age group, knowledge about this disease and risk factors is sparse, and preventive examinations are not available or are not or insufficiently used. In order to evaluate the state of knowledge on testicular tumors in adolescents, aknowledge survey was conducted at 6high schools in Hamburg from January to April 2019 among pupils of grades 11 and 12. This was carried out with aquestionnaire comprising 15items, which was analyzed and also evaluated on agender-specific basis. Only fully completed questionnaires were considered. The overall proportion of correctly answered questions was 60.04%. Broken down by gender, the proportion was 60.18% for female pupils and 59.14% for male pupils, while the gender ratio was 52.2 and 47.8% for female pupils. Special questions on testicular tumors were answered correctly by 59.71% of the female students and 54.8% of the male students, while general questions on the structure and function of the male sexual organs were answered 4.51% better by the male students with 64.9%. These were statistically significant in both cases. The survey shows agender-specific knowledge deficit on testicular tumors, which is more pronounced among boys. As intensified knowledge transfer on this topic alone is insufficient, apreventive examination should be established especially for boys. This would enable individual, risk-commensurate and needs-adapted monitoring and early detection of testicular tumor disease, but also of other health issues in male adolescents.