Tweet
From the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute (Y.Z., B.I.G., K.A.M.); National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (M.A.K.), National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, MD; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Research Triangle Park, NC (M.P.L.); Department of Epidemiology and of Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT (Y.Z.); and Reproductive Endocrine Research Laboratory, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA (R.Z.S.).
PURPOSE: It was hypothesized that the risk for testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) is associated with maternal hormone levels. To examine the hypothesis, some studies used perinatal factors as surrogates for hormone levels. To determine the validity of this assumption, hormone-perinatal factor relationships were examined in the Collaborative Perinatal Project. METHODS: Maternal estradiol, estriol, and testosterone levels in first- and third-trimester serum samples were correlated with perinatal factors in 300 mothers representative of populations at high (white Americans) or low (black Americans) risk for TGCT. RESULTS: For white participants, testosterone levels were associated negatively with maternal height (p < 0.01) and age (p = 0.02) and positively with maternal weight (p = 0.02) and body mass index (BMI; p < 0.01), whereas estradiol levels were associated negatively with height (p = 0.03) and positively with son's birth weight (p = 0.04). For black participants, estriol levels were associated negatively with maternal weight (p = 0.01), BMI (p = 0.02), and gestational age p < 0.01) and positively with son's birth weight (p < 0.01), length (p = 0.04), and head circumference (p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that use of perinatal characteristics as surrogates for hormone levels should be limited to a specific ethnic group. For white men, previously reported associations of TGCT with maternal weight and age may be caused by lower maternal testosterone levels.
PMID: 16882463 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
PURPOSE: It was hypothesized that the risk for testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) is associated with maternal hormone levels. To examine the hypothesis, some studies used perinatal factors as surrogates for hormone levels. To determine the validity of this assumption, hormone-perinatal factor relationships were examined in the Collaborative Perinatal Project. METHODS: Maternal estradiol, estriol, and testosterone levels in first- and third-trimester serum samples were correlated with perinatal factors in 300 mothers representative of populations at high (white Americans) or low (black Americans) risk for TGCT. RESULTS: For white participants, testosterone levels were associated negatively with maternal height (p < 0.01) and age (p = 0.02) and positively with maternal weight (p = 0.02) and body mass index (BMI; p < 0.01), whereas estradiol levels were associated negatively with height (p = 0.03) and positively with son's birth weight (p = 0.04). For black participants, estriol levels were associated negatively with maternal weight (p = 0.01), BMI (p = 0.02), and gestational age p < 0.01) and positively with son's birth weight (p < 0.01), length (p = 0.04), and head circumference (p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that use of perinatal characteristics as surrogates for hormone levels should be limited to a specific ethnic group. For white men, previously reported associations of TGCT with maternal weight and age may be caused by lower maternal testosterone levels.
PMID: 16882463 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]