Marijuana Tied To Cancer Risk
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Young men who began using marijuana as adolescents or who smoke pot at least once a week appear twice as likely to develop testicular cancer as those who never used it.
The association, as reported by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, was strongest with nonseminoma, an aggressive subtype of testicular cancer that typically strikes men between ages 20 and 35.
"It's not just that you develop testicular cancer, but you develop a worse type of testicular cancer," said Glen Justice, director of the cancer center at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley, Calif.
Since the 1950s, testicular cancer rates have increased by 3 percent to 6 percent a year in the United States.
Various studies have looked for environmental or lifestyle changes that could account for the increase. The study published online in the journal Cancer was the first to look at marijuana, its authors said.
Researchers interviewed 371 men ages 18 to 44 who had been diagnosed with testicular cancer and an additional 979 men of the same age group who did not have cancer.
The researchers found a 70 percent higher risk of testicular cancer in those who were using pot, with an even higher risk associated with younger age at first use and frequency of use.
-- Mary Engel, Los Angeles Times
