Risk factors for testicular germ cell tumors

Last revised by Daniel J Bell on 1 Sep 2021

Risk factors for testicular germ cell tumors (GCT) include:

  • Caucasians at higher risk than African Americans (9:1)
  • undescended testis
    • 10-40x increased risk 
    • around 10% of all tumors are associated with undescended testis
    • higher risk if intra-abdominal testis compared with intrainguinal
    • orchidopexy prior to puberty can reduce the tumor risk
    • increased risk in the contralateral normally descended testis
  • previous tumor in contralateral testis
  • family history of testicular germ cell tumor
    • 4x increase if father affected
    • 9x if brother affected
  • testicular microlithiasis
    • ~8x increased risk of germ cell tumors in symptomatic testis with microlithiasis 1
    • no increased risk found in asymptomatic testes therefore screening is unlikely to be useful
    • overall, microlithiasis is present in around 50% of germ cell tumors cases, but it is also very common in patients without cancer
  • testicular dysgenesis 
  • other risk factors may include

See also

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