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. 2021 Oct 28;20(1):111.
doi: 10.1186/s12940-021-00795-y.

Domestic use of pesticides during early periods of development and risk of testicular germ cell tumors in adulthood: a French nationwide case-control study

Aurélie M N Danjou  1 , Olivia Pérol  2   3 , Astrid Coste  2   3 , Elodie Faure  2   4 , Rémi Béranger  5 , Helen Boyle  6 , Elodie Belladame  2 , Lény Grassot  2 , Matthieu Dubuis  2 , Johan Spinosi  7 , Liacine Bouaoun  8 , Aude Fléchon  2 , Louis Bujan  9   10 , Véronique Drouineaud  10   11 , Florence Eustache  10   12 , Isabelle Berthaut  10   12   13 , Jeanne Perrin  10   14   15 , Florence Brugnon  10   16   17 , Barbara Charbotel  2   18 , Joachim Schüz  8 , Béatrice Fervers  2   3 ; TESTIS study group
Affiliations

Domestic use of pesticides during early periods of development and risk of testicular germ cell tumors in adulthood: a French nationwide case-control study

Aurélie M N Danjou et al. Environ Health. .

Abstract

Background: Testicular germ cell tumours (TGCT) are the most frequent cancers in young men in developed countries and their incidence rate has doubled worldwide over the past 40 years. Early life exposures to pesticides are suspected to increase TGCT risk. Our research aimed at estimating adult TGCT risk associated with parental domestic use of pesticides during early periods of child development.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study of 304 TGCT cases, aged 18-45 years old, recruited in 20 French university hospitals, and 274 controls frequency-matched on hospital and birth year. Participants' mothers provided information on their domestic use of pesticides from 1 year before start of pregnancy to 1 year after their son's birth, for gardening activities, treatment of indoor plants, pets, wood and mold, and pest control. Odds ratios (OR) for TGCT (overall and by histological subtype) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using conditional logistic regression.

Results: Prevalence of reported domestic use of pesticides was 77.3% for insecticides, 15.9% for fungicides and 12.1% for herbicides. While no association was found for any use of insecticides (OR = 1.27, CI = 0.80-2.01) or herbicides (OR = 1.15, CI = 0.67-2.00), elevated risks of TGCT overall (OR = 1.73, CI = 1.04-2.87) and non-seminoma subtype (OR = 2.44, CI = 1.26-4.74) were observed for any use of fungicides. When specific purposes were examined, using fungicides and/or insecticides for woodwork (OR = 2.35, CI = 1.06-5.20) and using insecticides on cats and dogs (OR = 1.95, CI = 1.12-3.40) were associated with increased risk of non-seminoma subtype. We found no association for seminoma subtype.

Conclusions: Although recall bias may partially explain the elevated ORs, our study provides some evidence of a positive association between domestic use of pesticides during early periods of development, particularly fungicides and risk of adult TGCT and non-seminoma. Given the common domestic use of pesticides in France, further research on TGCT risk is warranted.

Keywords: Case-control study; Domestic use; Environment; Epidemiology; Pesticides; Testicular germ cell tumor.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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