Children fathered by men treated for testicular cancer

Abstract

Children fathered by 27 testicular cancer patients treated with radiotherapy, 25 treated with chemotherapy, and 57 control men (46 community controls and 11 Stage I testicular cancer patients) were examined for evidence of congenital malformations. The proportion of malformations in children in the treatment group did not differ from that in children in the control group or from incidence rates for malformations in the general population. Our results suggest that treatment for testicular cancer should not constitute a reason for advising termination of pregnancy, although numbers were too few to detect a relative risk smaller than 3 X 2. More observations are needed to provide a definite answer.