From: Robina Suwol
Date: 17 Mar 2003
Time: 00:17:55
Remote Name: 172.151.196.149
MOTHERS' PCBS AND SONS' TESTICULAR CANCER
Date: 13 Mar 2003
From: "Peter Montague" {Peter@rachel.org}
Lennart Hardell and colleagues report a strong association between testicular
cancer risk for a man and the levels of organochlorines [OCs] in his mother's
[blood] serum. They found only a limited link between OCs in the man's own blood
and the likelihood of developing testicular cancer.
Although testicular cancer is a disease primarily of young adulthood, growing
evidence points to developmental failure in the fetal testis as its principal
origin. A number of factors have been suggested as possible causes of this
developmental failure, including endocrine [hormone] disrupting chemicals [EDCs].
Evidence supporting the role of EDCs, however, has been circumstantial and
indirect: Dramatic increases in the incidence of testicular cancer over time
suggest an environmental link. Associations between testicular cancer and 3
other testicular maladies (impaired sperm quality, cryptorchidism and
hypospadias) suggest a common origin and have been linked in what is now called
the "testicular dysgenesis syndrome." EDC compounds can induce these other
maladies in laboratory animals.
This new study by Hardell et al. presents the strongest epidemiological link
reported to date between testicular cancer and endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
Hardell et al.'s central findings are that (1) mothers with higher
organochlorine levels are significantly more likely to have given birth to sons
who develop testicular cancer; and (2) in contrast, the sons themselves for the
most part do not have elevated organochlorine levels compared to men without
testicular cancer.
While this result falls short of proving that developmental disruption by
organochlorine contamination in the womb sets the stage for testicular cancer in
adulthood, it strengthens the case significantly. No other mechanism would be
consistent with the central findings of this study.
- - -
The original study appeared here: Hardell, L, B van Bavel, G
Lindstrom, M Carlberg, AC Dreifaldt, H Wijkstrom H Starkhammar, M Eriksson, A
Hallquist and T Kolmert. 2003. Increased Concentrations of Polychlorinated
Biphenyls, Hexachlorobenzene and Chlordanes in Mothers to Men with Testicular
Cancer. Environmental Health Perspectives Vol. 111 (dec. 19, 2002).
Excerpted from:
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/