Families of men with fertility issues more at risk of cancer

B Isobel Williams via SWNS

The families of men with fertility issues are more at risk of cancer, warns a new study.

New research has found that relatives of men who have very few or no sperm in their semen can be over 150 percent more likely to develop cancer.

The risk and the type of cancer varied greatly depending on whether the men had low numbers of sperm or none.

The team looked at results from semen analyses conducted between 1996 and 2017 from 786 men attending fertility clinics in Utah.

They then matched them with information from, 5,674 fertile men in the general population who had at least one child to ensure they were fertile.

The researchers collected information on first, second and third-degree relatives using the Utah Population Database and identified cancer diagnoses using the Utah Cancer Registry.

When the team looked at all families of men with no sperm, they saw a significantly increased risk of five cancers.

These were bone and joint cancer, with a 156 percent increased risk, soft tissue cancers with a 56 percent increased risk, cancers of the womb with a 27 percent increased risk, Hodgkin Lymphomas with a 60 percent increased risk, and thyroid cancers with a 54 percent increased risk.

Families of the men with severely low sperm had a significantly increased risk of three cancers: colon cancer with a 16 percent increased risk, bone and joint with a 143 percent increased risk, and testicular cancer with a 134 percent increased risk.

The researchers also found a 61 percent decreased risk of esophageal cancer (cancer of the gullet).

Assistant Professor Joemy Ramsay, of Utah University in the US, said: “Our study identified several unique patterns of cancer risk in families of men with poor fertility.

“When family members share cancer risk patterns, it suggests that they have genetic, environmental, or health behaviors in common.

“By identifying which groups of families have similar cancer risk patterns we can improve our understanding of the biological mechanisms of both cancer and infertility.

“It will help us to assess the risk of cancer for families and provide improved patient counseling.”

The team believes that the great difference between men with no sperm and low sperm could explain the inconsistent associations between subfertility and cancer in previous studies.

Dr. Ramsay added: “In this study, we wanted to describe the extent to which patterns of cancer risk vary between families of subfertile men, and whether this risk is seen in all families or is driven by a small subset of families.

“By identifying families with similar patterns of cancer, we may be able to discover factors that are involved in both infertility and cancer.

“We simultaneously assessed the risk for multiple types of cancer within each family and then we performed a cluster analysis to find groups of families with similar patterns of risk for multiple cancers.

“This is the first study to describe these multicancer patterns in families of subfertile men.”

The findings were published in the journal Human Reproduction.