June 22, 2000-Vol31n32: Research Digest

VOLUME 31, NUMBER 32

THURSDAY, June 22, 2000

Research Digest

Cancer and infertility linked

Men who develop testicular cancer father fewer children and are more likely to have been diagnosed with infertility prior to their cancer diagnosis than healthy controls, a UB study has found.

The research results, presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Epidemiologic Research, contradict earlier findings that showed no relationship between a man's fertility and an eventual diagnosis of testicular cancer.

In this current study, men with an eventual diagnosis of testicular cancer were found to be two-thirds less likely to have ever fathered a live infant, and to be nine times more likely to have been diagnosed as infertile than healthy men.

Julie Baker, a doctoral student in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine and lead author on both studies, said the new results reflect a larger number of cases from a state-wide, rather than regional, database. The previous study was done at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), a regional cancer center that treats some of the area's sickest patients and may not represent the experiences of men with less-aggressive cancers or men in the general population, she said. The current study involved cancer cases identified through the New York State Cancer Registry.

It also used healthy men as controls, while the previous study used men who had other types of non-hormonal cancers. "We had no reason to believe that fertility would be affected in men with non-hormonal cancers," Baker said, "and we didn't see a difference between the two groups of men. There is always the possibility that both groups of men are impaired in the same way, probably either because of the pathology of their diseases or something about men that end up being treated at RPCI. However, we don't know enough about how fertility relates to subsequent cancer to be able to explain why the groups were so similar.

"In the current study, all men in Upstate New York who were diagnosed with testicular cancer over a three-year period were eligible for the study, so the men we interviewed probably are more representative of men with this diagnosis. Also, the use of healthy neighborhood controls may make the experiences of the comparison group more similar to those of men in the general population. Together, this should give us a better picture of whether the groups have similar fertility histories."

Chubby kids risk heart disease

UB researchers have determined that children with a high body mass index (BMI), a measure of obesity, are likely to have high levels of triglycerides and low levels of protective cholesterol in childhood, dyslipidemia conditions that contribute to heart disease in adulthood.

The study ruled out low birth weight-also thought to be associated with an increased risk of heart disease in adulthood-as a risk factor for dyslipidemia in children.

"We think that one's lipid profile in adulthood may be directly related to the profile in childhood," said Jian Liu, a doctoral student in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine and lead author on the study. "There may be some genetic factors that influence lipid profiles, but most of the influence comes from lifestyle factors.

"This study shows it is more important to look at body mass index than birth weight when assessing the potential for dyslipidemia in children."

Every child should get plenty of exercise to maintain a healthy BMI, he added.

Liu and colleagues used data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in the United States from 1988-94 in their analysis.

Study assesses oral-health status

African Americans and Mexican Americans have significantly poorer oral health than non-Hispanic whites in the United States, and men have more periodontal disease than women, a study of national data by UB epidemiologists has shown.

The findings come on the heels of the U.S. surgeon general's first report on the nation's oral health, which called dental and oral diseases a "silent epidemic" in the U.S., with the burden falling heavily on certain population groups. There is growing evidence-some developed by UB faculty-that oral infections may be a risk factor for heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other chronic conditions.

Analysis of data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted from 1988-94 showed that close to half of African-American men and one-third of African-American women in the survey had periodontal disease.

For whites, the incidence was approximately one-quarter and one-sixth for men and women, respectively. Incidence of periodontal disease in Mexican Americans fell between these two groups, at approximately one-third of men and one-fourth of women.

Tiejian Wu, research assistant professor in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine and lead author on the study, said the reasons for the significant differences between whites and African Americans remain a mystery.

"It could be a matter of less use of dental services, especially preventative dental care, due either to perceptions regarding the need for dental care or limited access to it. Ethnic groups also may have different inflammatory responses."