Can TC be passed from Father to son?

[Karen]

I probably should have said "pro-active" instead of "vigilant." I just don't believe in coincidences of this nature. I don't have the education or the knowledge in this area, but I do have the wisdom.

I think a gut instinct for all parents out there is that if you have a son, drive home the importance of self exams and potential symptoms.

My first cousin and sister both died from leukemia in 1968 at agres 8 and 5, respectively. The docs said it was very unusual to see two closely related family members with the same diagnosis. Genetic or environmental cause(s) would put a piece of the puzzle in place for our family, but it really doesn't matter. You can bet that I watch my daughter like a hawk...as my Mom watched me.

[Margaret]

I think a gut instinct for all parents out there is that if you have a son, drive home the importance of self exams and potential symptoms.

My first cousin and sister both died from leukemia in 1968 at agres 8 and 5, respectively. The docs said it was very unusual to see two closely related family members with the same diagnosis. Genetic or environmental cause(s) would put a piece of the puzzle in place for our family, but it really doesn't matter. You can bet that I watch my daughter like a hawk...as my Mom watched me.

Karen,

I have the most beautiful 7 year old you have ever seen, and I assure you...he will be sick of his mother asking about his testicles!! I plan on watching him very closely. He is my heart.

M

[intannette]

If TC originates in utero shouldn't someone be asking us mums about our pregnancies? What were we exposed to? What, if any, illnesses did we have? What did we do that might cause such a huge problem later?

[Fed]

If TC originates in utero shouldn't someone be asking us mums about our pregnancies? What were we exposed to? What, if any, illnesses did we have? What did we do that might cause such a huge problem later?

If someone is studying how this occurs, then I am sure these are questions that might be asked. Part of the problem is that testicular cancer is so rare that there are very few studies currently being undertaken on the issue.

[dadmo]

If TC originates in utero shouldn't someone be asking us mums about our pregnancies? What were we exposed to? What, if any, illnesses did we have? What did we do that might cause such a huge problem later?

Our local Oncologist asked Nancy a series of question related to her pregnancy. When we told him that she had to take Clomid (Clomiphene Citrate) to get pregnant he wrote like crazy. Until this thread I thought that was standard.

[Jilleighn]

I have often wondered about this. Although I only have girls and my husband is an only child the thought is always there. My mother in law had 2 surgeries right before getting pregnant (implants) and had leaking problems with that. She was actually part of a lawsuit going against the makers of the implants that leaked. She now blames herself for giving her son cancer even when we tell her there are no studies out there that say this is what causes TC.

[Chris75]

Also...I am wondering if anyone here that got TC also had a hernia? Boyce had a hernia since birth and had it repaired in his 20's. In his 30's he got TC...same side as the herina. Our doctor said there was zero connection...but I still wonder.

Margaret

i had surgery for a left inguinal hernia (not from birth, but appeared in college) and then later had TC on the left side when i was 25. currently i now have an inguinal hernia on my right side, but my urologist doesn't want to mess with it and introduce a problem since it is not too much of an inconvenience for me. i've been doing fine with the right-side hernia for a couple of years now.

as far as father and son go, my dad had his prostate removed due to cancer and my uncle also had prostate cancer. i believe both cases happened after my TC. both my dad and uncle served in vietnam and my mom thinks there is a connection between the three of us and the war.

i've accepted the fact that i'll probably never know what caused my TC, but it's pretty hard not to dwell on it. i often wonder about the air quality, the food i eat, my drinking water, radiation from electronics, things that influence testosterone and sperm production, etc. i know what it's like to try and "figure" out TC, but there isn't too much that is conclusive right now.

[MRMRSU]

Why does someone who never smokes, get lung cancer, and a person who smoke 100 packs a day doesn't?

Why is there such a rise in Tc?

Something triggers the defect in the gene ? Enviromental?

If you only knew how many times I've been asking this question in recent months! I'm of the mindset that it could be environmental...but that's strictly my opinion on the matter.

I also found it interesting that you mentioned something about athletes and in particular about water sports. I recall one of our nurses here in Newport Beach mentioning to us that a lot of the testicular cancer patients they see are guys that swam, canoed, etc. around the Back Bay (a local estuary). We found this little tidbit of info very interesting...but certainly something inconclusive and needing further research.

As for familial links, Andy is the oldest of three sons. He is currently participating in a research study at USC's Keck School of Medicine on the matter...trying to see if there are any correlations. Will be happy to share any info once their study is concluded and published.

[dadmo]

Urban legend time:
I have often herad that the reason more athletic people get tc is because the activity increases the body temperature and jockey shorts or a jock stap hold the testicles too close to the over heated body.
I don't know what to make of this but I have heard it more then once. As a side note Jason never wore tight underware and only a cup during football games, certainly not enough to make a differance.

[MRMRSU]

Urban legend time:
I have often herad that the reason more athletic people get tc is because the activity increases the body temperature and jockey shorts or a jock stap hold the testicles too close to the over heated body.
I don't know what to make of this but I have heard it more then once. As a side note Jason never wore tight underware and only a cup during football games, certainly not enough to make a differance.

Hi "dadmo" (Bill) - So Maybe Andy's theory was right all along: That it was the new package of tight Fruit-of-the-Loom's that caused all of this afterall!!!

[sldl1106]

Just wanted to add my two cents to the "study" we have going on here... Rob had a double hernia operation as a toddler. But then the first onc. we saw said, as Fed mentioned, that this happened in utero.

On a side note, I thought this was strange for the doc to say to us:

He asked if we had children. I said, yes, one daughter. He made a surprised face. I said, why? Is she at risk now? And he said no, but men who got this type of cancer were typically infertile before diagnosis.

I see a lot of you guys on the forum have children... so what was he talking about??

[Scott]

He asked if we had children. I said, yes, one daughter. He made a surprised face. I said, why? Is she at risk now? And he said no, but men who got this type of cancer were typically infertile before diagnosis.

I see a lot of you guys on the forum have children... so what was he talking about??

I'd want to see some data to back that up. I've got four kids, so I'm not buying it.

The TCRC's orchiectomy page does note, "...many men with testicular cancer have had fertility problems before the testicle is removed. This problem may or may not go away after the orchiectomy."

Also, this Cancer Research UK page lists subfertility among known risk factors for testicular cancer.

[k.strehle]

boys

kinda makes me wonder as i have 3 boys 25, 24, 17. mine started in my lower back so im telling them if they hurt or have an ache get to a docter....in fact i know of a couple good ones. but seriously get it checked asap and regularly.

kendall

[Margaret]

Just wanted to add my two cents to the "study" we have going on here... Rob had a double hernia operation as a toddler. But then the first onc. we saw said, as Fed mentioned, that this happened in utero.

On a side note, I thought this was strange for the doc to say to us:

He asked if we had children. I said, yes, one daughter. He made a surprised face. I said, why? Is she at risk now? And he said no, but men who got this type of cancer were typically infertile before diagnosis.

I see a lot of you guys on the forum have children... so what was he talking about??

Stacy,

Boyce had a hernia too as a child. I have wondered many times about the connection.

[Scott]

Susceptibility alleles for testicular germ cell tumour: a review

Int J Androl. 2007 Aug;30(4):242-50; discussion 250.
Susceptibility alleles for testicular germ cell tumour: a review.
Rapley E.

Testicular Cancer Genetics Team, Section of Cancer Genetics, Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey, UK.

Family history is among the strongest and most consistent of the risk factors for testicular germ cell tumour (TGCT). Brothers of affected cases have an 8- to 10-fold relative risk and fathers/sons have a risk between four and sixfold. The familial relative risk of TGCT is higher than for most other cancer types, which rarely exceeds four. The high relative risk suggests that inherited susceptibility to TGCT may account for a substantial fraction of TGCT cases. The search for TGCT susceptibility genes has proven difficult and a recent genome-wide linkage study for TGCT susceptibility loci demonstrated no statistically significant regions of linkage with all LOD scores less than two. Moreover, a previous report of linkage to a region on Xq27 was not replicated. The results from genetic linkage analysis demonstrate that TGCT susceptibility is likely to be due to several genes, each with a modest effect on disease risk. The Y chromosome, which cannot be analysed by genetic linkage, carries a number of testis- and germ cell-specific genes. We recently demonstrated that a deletion on the Y chromosome known as 'gr/gr' is a rare, low-penetrance allele that is associated with susceptibility to TGCT. Based on the evidence from the linkage search the 'gr/gr' deletion represents one of possibly many TGCT susceptibility alleles, and new and emerging technologies will be employed in future work to identify these genes.