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Urology Testicular cancer generated by cycling?
Every year around 4,000 men in Germany contract testicular cancer, especially in the age group between 20 and 40 years. The Italian cyclist Ivan Basso also received the diagnosis recently. In an interview, a German expert gave information about the causes and treatment options of the disease.
Professional cyclist receives diagnosis of testicular cancer
Around 4,000 men in Germany suffer from testicular cancer each year, especially in the age group between 20 and 40 years. Although the exact causes are not yet clear, but the main risk factor is an undescended testicle (Maldescensus testis). In addition, according to experts, the risk is increased by hereditary factors. As in an ARD "crime scene" from Münster last year, the claim: Kiffen increased the risk of testicular cancer was set up, have numerous physicians to speak and negated the claim. It has recently become known that testicular cancer has been diagnosed in the well-known Italian cyclist Ivan Basso. For a long time, a widespread - and often rebutted - error in urology is that cycling makes people impotent. Some people also associate this sport with testicular cancer. In an interview with the dpa news agency, the Hamburg urologist Professor Dr. Klaus-Peter Dieckmann Important to the disease.
Can testicular cancer be triggered by cycling? (Image: joshya / fotolia.com) No connection between cycling and testicular cancer
When asked if there was a connection between cycling and testicular cancer, he said, "No, not at all. Bicycling definitely has nothing to do with testicular cancer. However, the example shows Ivan Basso: For cyclists with the risk of falling and injured a higher likelihood that an existing testicular cancer is even noticeable. "Otherwise, the relationship between cycling and the disease is rather the reverse: Sporting is a so-called protective factor, protects thus from cancer.
Various risk factors
Among the risk factors for the disease, the expert explained that she frequently occurs in the same families. If the father had testicular cancer, the risk is therefore four to six times as high and the brother already six to ten times. Especially men with a malposition of the testicle have an increased risk: Prof. Dieckmann explained that the testes in a congenital undescended testicles not hiked into the scrotum, but is stuck in the groin. In addition, testicular cancer and infertility have similar causes. The doctor named a fourth risk factor: the size. Therefore, men over 1.95 meters have a slightly increased risk of developing testicular cancer. "We suspect that this is due to a high-calorie diet at an early age," says the urologist.
"Healing chances overall excellent"
With approximately 4,000 cases of testicular cancer annually, this cancer is only eleventh among all species in Germany. On average, prostate cancer is the most common cancer. However, in the 20- to 40-year-old age group, testicular cancer is by far the most common type of cancer. According to the expert, testicular cancer is less related to lifestyle than to hereditary preoccupation. Precursors of testicular cancer are probably already formed in the embryonic heart and usually break out after puberty. The chief physician of urology at the Albertinen Hospital in Hamburg said: "Although the prognosis varies greatly with the stage of development of the tumor, the overall chances of recovery are excellent: in more than 95 percent of the cases the patient can be cured." If the metastases however, are already very advanced, sometimes there is no salvation. As Prof. Dieckmann explained to the dpa, after the diagnosis, the entire testis is first surgically removed, other metastases must otherwise be destroyed in a chemotherapy. Organ preservation can only be done in rare exceptional cases. Young men, who often weigh themselves down because of their age and rarely go to check-ups, are usually shocked with appropriate diagnosis and ask themselves: "How could this only happen to me?" (Ad)