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Dr. Jeff Foster www.drjefffoster.co.uk Dr. Jeff Foster is a GP with an interest in Men's Health. If you have any questions on men's health, please contact Dr. Foster at contact@drjefffoster.co.uk
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rom an early age, boys become aware of their testicles, and as they progress through life, they become more conscious of their presence, their function, and also their disease risk. It is now commonplace for various public health messages to remind us of the importance of self-examination and there have been multiple media campaigns and celebrity advocates who have stressed the importance of being aware of the symptoms and signs of testicular cancer. In fact, testicular cancer is a rare disease that has received a lot of attention, probably for the wrong reasons. Testicular cancer has an incidence of around 2400 new cases in the UK per year. In men, it is the 17th most common cancer, accounting for only 1% of all cancers affecting males. Interestingly, over the last ten years, the incidence of testicular cancer has increased by almost a tenth. This is unlikely to be due to any changes in true disease prevalence, but more likely a greater awareness of the condition, and the changing attitudes of men towards their own health. In general, survival rates from testicular cancer are very good, with Cancer Research quoting a 98% survival rate at ten years (approximately sixty deaths per year). Given that other cancers - of the prostate, lung, bowel, head and neck, kidney, lymphoma, bladder, oesophageal, and melanoma
and leukaemia - are all more common than testicular cancer, why do we focus so much on its awareness and selfexamination? There are several reasons, probably the main reason for testicular cancer awareness, is the association we have as men with our own testicles. Testicles are part of what makes us male, they are responsible for sperm production and testosterone, two of the core elements that make up what it is to be a man. More so, men tend to have a protective obsession about their genitalia and a general awareness of the disease processes that can occur. While every man should be concerned about the risk of lung cancer, most men worry more about the personal impact of testicular cancer. It does though help to set risk factors in context. For any illness, they are usually divided into two types: modifiable risk factors - those we can alter through medication or lifestyle, and non-modifiable risk factors - such as age or sex. For testicular cancer, nonmodifiable risk factors include the following: • • • • •
Being Caucasian. Having a genetic abnormality that results in an extra X chromosome. Undescended testicles (cryptorchidism). Previous testicular cancer. Being tall. Men who are taller than average, have been shown to have an increased risk of testicular cancer.
