Family members of men with infertility problems may be at increased risk of some cancers

Important points:

• Reduced fertility and infertility in men may be associated with an increased risk of cancer in relatives.
• The magnitude of risk may be based on genetic or environmental factors.

Relatives of men with severe infertility or infertility may be at increased risk of several different types of cancer, a study says. human reproduction showed that.

Researchers say the magnitude of the risk and which cancers people are more likely to develop vary from person to person. They identified multiple family clusters within the study cohort that may be influenced by factors such as genetics and environment.

“We found 13 different multicancer patterns in azoospermia. [no sperm] Families and 12 different multicancer patterns in oligospermia [limited sperm],” Joey Me M. Dr. Ramsay, an assistant professor at the University of Utah told Helio. “We found that there are different patterns between families with azoospermia and families with oligospermia. So what cancer patterns we see depends on what type of reproduction the relative has. What matters is whether you have a reduced capacity.”

Various cancers in men, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases, “slightly” shorter lifespans, and increased mortality from chronic diseases have all previously been associated with lower sperm quality and quantity. Ramsay said.

“Many of these diseases are [or] “Symptoms can be associated with genetic and environmental factors, and many genetic and environmental factors are shared with families,” she continued. “We were curious: Does this risk extend beyond the infertile individual to their families?” If so, could it help us learn some of the mechanistic fundamentals of these conditions? ? for infertility? How do they intersect?

Ramsay et al used the Infertility Health and Assisted Reproductive Technology and Environment cohorts to identify azoospermia and severe oligospermia (<1.5 × 10).⁶/mL), we used the Utah Population Database to search for family members up to the third degree of kinship (grandparents and their descendants) for the study.

They constructed a cohort with a 5:1 ratio of fertile men to sterile/infertile men.

Family inclusion required at least 10 informants and at least 1 year of follow-up from 1966 to 2017.

Researchers identified 426 case families and 3,105 control families for the azoospermia cohort and 360 case families and 2,569 control families for the oligospermia cohort.

Families with azoospermia have an increased risk of bone, joint, soft tissue, uterine, Hodgkin's lymphoma, and thyroid cancers, and families with oligozoospermia have an increased risk of colon, bone, joint, and thyroid cancers compared to control families. The risk was high. testicular cancer. Families with oligospermia also had a reduced risk of esophageal cancer.

Looking at their own population, Ramsay and colleagues found that 66% of families with azoospermia had a cancer risk similar to that of the general population. In her 12 other clusters, he had an increased risk for at least two different cancers. Furthermore, most of them showed that younger age was associated with a higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer (risk ranged from 2 to 12 times).

All oligozoospermia clusters showed an increased risk of at least one and up to three cancers, five of which also showed an increased risk of cancers in adolescents and young adults.

“There's a lot of heterogeneity between families, and that's natural,” Ramsay said. “You can group different families together, but it's still not just an all-encompassing one. For example, if you're related to someone with infertility, you have an increased risk of cancer. It depends on the type of infertility. It depends on you, and it depends on your family.”

She noted that 4 out of 12 oligospermocyte clusters increase the risk of testicular cancer, but the range is 4-fold to 24-fold.

“We're still trying to figure out what those mechanisms are and how we can identify and advise those patients in the future,” Ramsay said.

She hopes to further investigate these clusters, looking for biological specimens, mutations, or other patterns that connect the families.

“For some of these families, we might be able to find some genes or combinations of genes. Maybe there's a connection.” [something] Like mutation repair, it can increase the mutation rate and can cause infertility.Mutation rate may increase [also] It causes cancer,” Ramsay said.

“For others, it can be a common environmental exposure,” she added. “Perhaps they all live in areas where they are exposed to some kind of chemical, which affects both family and infertility patient factors.”

For more information:

Joey Me M. Dr. Ramsay, Please contact [email protected].

Issuer:

Information source/disclosure information

collapse

Disclosure: The researchers did not report relevant financial disclosures. Genomic Approaches Linking Elevated Germline Mutation Rates to Male Infertility and Physical Health (GEMS) funded the study.

Add topics to email alerts

Receive an email when a new article is posted

Enter your email address to receive emails when new articles are posted. .

” data-action=”subscribe”> Subscribe

Your request could not be processed. Please try again later.If this issue continues to occur, please contact us [email protected].

Return to Helio