Some social and medical characteristics of Army men with testicular cancer

Abstract

Risk of developing cancer of the testis was related to social and medical characteristics in a case-control study of men on active duty in the US Army, 1950-1970. Service records were obtained for 702 newly-diagnosed patients and 624 members of a systematic sample of unaffected servicemen. Risk ratios were computed for seminomas, tumors of other histologic types, and for all tumors combined. Respectively, these risk ratios were 0.3, 0.1 and 0.2 for blacks compared to whites, 1.5, 1.1 and 1.3 for Protestants compared to Catholics, and 1.5, 1.0 and 1.2 for the ever married compared to the never married. Risk increased regularly with duration of schooling for seminomas but not other types of tumors. Risk appeared relatively low for men from large sibships. Men from the North Central or Western parts of the country were at higher risk than those from the South or Northeast, a trend that was stronger for tumors other than seminomas. Observed changes in risk with respect to history of mumps and ABO blood group were small.