Regularly smoking cannabis increases the risk of developing testicular cancer by 36%.
Testicular cancer is rare. It represents only 1 to 2% of male cancers in the world. Nevertheless, it is the cancer most often diagnosed in men aged 15 to 35. Currently, the only risk factor officially recognized by researchers is cryptorchidism or the absence of spontaneous descent of one or both testicles in their normal position. However, according to a new study published on November 27 in the journal JAMA Network, cannabis could also play a role in the development of this disease.
To arrive at these conclusions, the researchers analyzed 25 studies looking at the link between testicular, lung, mouth, head and neck cancer from 1973 to 2018. If they found no link between regular cannabis use and lung and ENT cancer, they found that men who smoked a cigarette or a joint of marijuana every day for ten years or more had a 36% higher risk of developing cancer more testicles than the others.
Because cannabis is extracted from a plant. And when you burn a plant, you create a lot of carcinogens, the researchers explain.
Better understand the health risks associated with cannabis
On the other hand, the latter are not able to determine why their meta-analysis did not show a link between the consumption of cannabis and the three other cancers analyzed (although lung cancer is officially favored by the fact of smoking cannabis). tobacco). Perhaps because they only studied studies written in English or over too long a period, they argue. Indeed, some studies that are too old may not reflect the current marijuana consumption habits of the populations analyzed.
Either way, the study provides insight into how smoking marijuana might affect men, the researchers note, warning about understudied new consumption patterns like vaping. In the United States, several people have also recently died as a result of lung diseases possibly contracted after vaping cannabis.
What’s more, as cannabis is increasingly legalized around the world, whether for recreational or therapeutic use, more and more people are starting to smoke it regularly. It is therefore important to better understand the health risks associated with this substance, conclude the researchers.
A good prognosis when the disease is diagnosed early
In France, approximately 2,000 people are diagnosed with testicular cancer each year. If the disease is detected early, its prognosis is very good. “The cure rate reaches 95% for localized tumors and it is even 70 to 80% when there are metastases”, assures Arnaud Roth, head of the digestive tumors unit in the oncology department of University Hospitals. of Geneva (HUG), in Switzerland, at the site Planet Health.
Most often, testicular cancer does not cause pain and is mainly manifested by the presence of a hard mass in the diseased testicle. Arnaud Roth therefore recommends that men feel themselves “once every one or two months in the shower, because under hot water, the scrotum is more relaxed”. If in doubt, see a doctor as soon as possible.
.
