UroToday - Data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database has demonstrated that Caucasian patients exhibit a germ cell tumor incidence five times higher than African American patients.

In the August issue of the JCO, McGlynn and colleagues from the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics of the NIH present interesting epidemiological data suggesting that the incidence of testicular germ cell tumors in African American patients has in fact increased in the last decade.

Data from 9 SEER registries collected between 1973 and 2001 were evaluated to assess epidemiological trends in seminomas and non-seminomatous tumors. While until 1988 the incidence of germ cell tumors in African American patients had dropped by nearly 15%, a 100% increase was observed from 1988 and 1992 and between 1998 and 2001. Interestingly, seminomas increased in incidence as much as 124% compared with non-seminomatous tumors which increased by only 64%. Furthermore, the increased incidence was not accompanied by an increase in detection of localized tumors, suggesting that the observed differences were not simply a result of improved early detection.

By Ricardo F. Sánchez-Ortiz, MD

Reference:
J Clin Oncol. 2005 Aug 20;23(24):5757-61.
Link Here.
McGlynn KA, Devesa SS, Graubard BI, Castle PE.

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