Smoking pot can lead to testicular cancer says study

Cancer raises its head again! A new study unravels that people smoking marijuana show more risk of testicular cancer. The study shows that use of marijuana may also have long lasting consequences on men’s overall condition of health and fertility.

The Californian study

The research study roped in 455 men and discovered that those who smoked pot had two times more chance of having testicular germ cell tumors. This is the most commonly found cancer in men lesser than 35 years.

"Testicular cancer is on the rise," stated Victoria Cortessis, study author and assistant professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles. “So we asked, 'What is it that young men are doing more frequently that could account for the increased risk?'"

The Cortessis team prepared an interview format to check out the use of recreational drugs amongst 163 males who had been diagnosed testicular cancer, and 292 healthy males of similar age group.

The study results

The results showed that males smoking pot faced double risk of testicular tumors than the men who had stayed away from the grass smoke. The males who had smoked came out with aggressive testicular tumors that were difficult to treat in the long run.

Dr Cortessis said "Most men who get testicular cancer today survive, and that's wonderful. But as a result of treatment, they may have problems with fertility or sexual function."

Cortessis was gravely concerned about boys in puberty who experiment with pot as a challenge. Her study depicted those men who smoked less than once weekly and lesser than 10 years showed higher risk of testicular cancer.

The testicular cancer data estimates

The National Cancer Institute data evidence depicts that approximately more than 8500 men may suffer from testicular cancer in 2012 and nearly 360 of them are feared to succumb to the medical condition.

Animal studies carried out be scientists to further study the effects of pot smoking ,point out that cannabis chemical tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC found in marijuana smoke leads to a reduction in the levels of hormones circulating in the body including the testosterone levels in the men.

"We know testosterone is an important regulator of testes development and function," affirmed Cortessis. "It may be that marijuana use disrupts this regulation in a way that makes the testes much more vulnerable to cancer."

Stephen Schwartz, an epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle who also went on to write first study linking marijuana use to testicular cancer in 2009 was seen supporting the recent study and urged further efforts in this direction ,stating "We now have three studies connecting marijuana use to testicular cancer, and no studies that contradict them," He felt that it was time attention was focused on this problem.