[Is smoking during pregnancy a cause of testicular cancer?]

Abstract

Smoking during pregnancy is suggested as a cause of the increasing incidence rates of testis cancer in Denmark, particularly for the age group between 25 and 50. Testis cancer is associated with lower birthweights, as is smoking during pregnancy. Danish women have rates of everyday smoking amongst the highest in Europe, and the highest rate of smoking during pregnancy in Scandinavia, followed by Norway, Sweden and Finland. Incidence rates for testis cancer show the same sequence. The increasing incidence of testis cancer in Copenhagen was temporarily halted among men bom between 1939-1945 during the wartime tobacco shortage. The maternal generation aged about 25 years during the war years shows a corresponding delay in the increasing incidence of lung and bladder cancer, with a lag-time of respectively 20 and 30 years. The author recommends long-term followup of newborn boys prenatally exposed to tobacco.