Undescended Testes Raise Testicular Cancer Risk

Boys with isolated cryptorchidism are nearly three times more likely to develop testicular cancer as boys without the condition, according to a recent meta-analysis published online in Archives of Disease in Childhood.

The meta-analysis, by Robert Carachi, PhD, of the Department of Surgical Paediatrics at Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Yorkhill, Glasgow, U.K., and colleagues, included nine case-control studies involving 2,281 cases and 4,811 controls and three cohort studies that included nearly 2.2 million boys, with 345 subjects developing testicular cancer over more than 58 million person-years of follow-up. Study limitations included possible publication bias as well as a lack of high-quality evidience focusing on the risk of malignancy in boys with isolated cryptorchidism.