Could smoking marijuana increase the risk of developing cancer? This controversial question has been raised by the first study to investigate a possible link between cannabis use and testicular cancer. A group at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, USA, interviewed men with testicular cancer about their history of cannabis use, and found that being a regular cannabis smoker at the time of diagnosis conferred a 70% increase in risk. Even after accounting for other lifestyle factors, such as smoking and drinking, cannabis was still a significant risk factor.
The authors discovered a link between cannabis use and aggressive non-seminoma-type testicular cancers, which account for ∼40% of all cases and typically strike men in their 20s and 30s. Dr Janet Daling, one of the authors of the study, suggests that puberty could provide a “window of opportunity” in which boys could be more susceptible to environmental factors, such as the chemicals present in cannabis, and that “this is consistent with the study's findings that the elevated risk of non-seminoma-type testicular cancer in particular was associated with marijuana use prior to 18” (The Independent, 9 Feb 2009).
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