Pubdate: Tue, 11 Sep 2012
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2012 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Jon Bardin, Los Angeles Times
Page: A3

STUDY LINKS MARIJUANA SMOKE, CANCER

LOS ANGELES- Male pot smokers beware: Your seemingly harmless habit
may be increasing your risk of developing the most dangerous forms of
testicular cancer.

A new study, published Monday on the website of the medical journal
Cancer, reports that men who have testicular cancer are twice as
likely to have smoked marijuana before they were diagnosed than
control subjects. The association existed only for non-semi-nomas,
the more dangerous form of testicular cancer that is harder to treat.

In the study, carried out in Los Angeles, a team of researchers
enrolled 163 men who had been diagnosed with testicular cancer between
1986 and 1991.

They also recruited a larger group of control subjects who were
matched to the patients on such characteristics as age, ethnicity, and
what L. A. neighborhood the subjects lived in at the time they were
diagnosed.

The researchers led by Victoria Cortessis of the University of
Southern California, quizzed the participants on a range of factors,
including drug use. They found that marijuana use before they were
diagnosed was linked to a twofold increase in testicular cancer risk.
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MAP posted-by: Matt