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Genome-Wide Association Study of Sporadic and Familial Testicular Germ Cell Tumors

Case-Control Study:
Testicular germ cell cancer has been increasing among men during most of the 20th century. Despite this increase, the etiology of testicular cancer is poorly understood. To better understand the molecular epidemiology of testicular cancer, the National Cancer Institute and the Department of Defense are conducting a case-control study of testicular cancer among military servicemen. The project includes obtaining biosamples and questionnaire data from all participants. Pre-diagnostic serum samples are available from the approximately 1,000 cases and 1,000 controls enrolled in the study.

Multiple-Case Family Study:
In a parallel project, we are also studying families in which 2 or more testicular cancers have occurred. Among those men diagnosed with testicular cancer, about 1-3 percent report a family history of the disease (FTGCT). Brothers of affected individuals are 8 to 10 times more likely to develop testicular cancer, and men whose fathers had testicular cancer are four times more likely to develop testicular cancer, when compared with the relatives of men who have never had testicular cancer. Large-scale genetic linkage studies have failed to identify one or more rare, highly-penetrant testicular susceptibility genes. Rather, it appears that these familial clusters are due to the combined effects of multiple more common genes with low penetrance (so-called "polygenic inheritance"). Our cohort of FTGCT families was assembled to characterize this syndrome's clinical phenotype, and to discover the full range of cancer susceptibility loci that influence TGCT pathogenesis.