High levels of cholesterol in the blood can increase the risk of having testicular cancer in men. The research which came in the recent issue of British Journal of Cancer says that the increase in blood cholesterol level can increase the risk of testicular cancer by almost as much as 4.5 % than for people with a healthy level of cholesterol.
The Swedish researchers from Karolinska University Hospital had looked into the data of 44,864 men taken and followed up for a period of 25 years. Of the entire data there were 21 cases of testicular cancer that were reported in the time span under scrutiny. There was a positive correlation between the incidence of testicular cancer and high levels of blood cholesterol. The risks of testicular cancer associated with middle level of serum cholesterol category is about 1.3 times to a normal healthy person with low levels of cholesterol, while the risk can increase to 4.5 times for person falling in the highest level of serum cholesterol category..For men in the age group of 15 to 44, testicular cancer is one of the common forms of cancer, whose incidence had increased in the recent times due to intake of more fatty foods in the diets amongst most other things..
Researchers feel that this may be first instance where testicular cancer had been linked to serum cholesterol levels..
Reference: British Journal of Cancer, May 2005
