Marijuana Associated to Aggressive Testicular Cancer

A new study reveals smoking marijuana over an extended period of time appears to greatly boost a young man’s risk for developing a particularly aggressive form of testicular cancer.

In fact, researchers of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s public health sciences division in Seattle found that men who smoked marijuana once a week or began to use the substance on a long-term basis while adolescents incurred double the risk for developing the fastest-spreading version of testicular cancer — nonseminoma, which accounts for about 40 percent of all cases.

Previous research on human and animal has indicated that marijuana use might lead to reduced hormonal production (particularly testosterone), poorer semen quality and impotency in men.

The new research revealed that current marijuana use was linked to a 70 percent increased risk for the disease. Independent of known risk factors, nonseminoma risk was found at high level among men who used the drug at least once a week and among those who had started using it before age 18.