Young men who smoke Marijuana (locally known as urumoji) are twice more likely to be diagnosed with testicular cancer than men who have never consumed the narcotic—says a U.S. study.
Researchers whose findings published in journal Cancer said the link appeared to be specific to a type of tumor known as nonseminoma.
“This is the third study consistently demonstrating a greater than doubling of risk of this particularly undesirable subtype of testicular cancer among young men with marijuana use,” said Victoria Cortessis of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, who led the study.
According to the American Cancer Society, a man’s lifetime risk of getting testicular cancer is about one in 270 – and because effective treatment is available, the risk of dying from the disease is just one in 5,000.
Little is known about what causes it. In cases where testes remain in the abdomen beyond the age of a year, are a risk factor. Both pesticide and hormone exposure have also been associated with the tumors.
163 young men who had been diagnosed with testicular cancer and nearly 300 men in a comparison group without the disease.
Both groups had been interviewed about their health and drug use between 1987 and 1994.
Among the men with cancer, 81% had used marijuana at some point, whereas that was the case for 70 percent of the comparison group.
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