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  • Cancer du Testicule
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Le cancer à cellules germinales du testicule, élément constitutif du Syndrome de Dysgénésie Testiculaire: rôle des facteurs environnementaux et de la susceptibilité génétique

Germ cell cancer and testicular dysgenesis syndrome

Resume

Durant les dernières décennies, le cancer du testicule à cellules germinales a augmenté dans de nombreux pays à travers le monde. Ces dernières années, l’attention a été attirée par les nombreuses recherches révélant des tendances négatives dans d’autres aspects de la santé reproductive masculine, comme une fréquence élevée et probablement en augmentation du testicule non descendu et de l’hypospadias, une qualité du sperme déclinante, et une demande apparemment croissante de reproduction assistée pour infécondité masculine. Le présent article résume les preuves qui sont en faveur d’un nouveau concept, à savoir que ces anomalies de la reproduction masculine pourraient constituer les signes d’une entité sous-jacente, le Syndrome de Dysgénésie Testiculaire (SDT). Ce syndrome, dû à des retards non spécifiques et à des aberrations du développement testiculaire précoce, pourrait devenir de plus en plus commun en raison de facteurs délétères de l’environnement et du mode de vie qui perturbent le développement gonadique. Les variations géographiques et ethniques de l’incidence des différentes formes de SDT peuvent s’expliquer soit par des différences d’exposition aux facteurs adverses, soit par des variations de la susceptibilité génétique à ces facteurs.

Abstract

The incidence of testicular germ cell cancer has been increasing over recent decades in many countries of the world. Many studies over recent years have reported adverse trends in other aspects of male reproductive health, such as high and possibly increasing frequencies of undescended testis and hypospadias, declining semen quality, and an apparently growing demand for assisted reproduction due to male infertility. This article summarises the available evidence supporting a new concept that these male reproductive abnormalities may be signs of a single underlying entity: testicular dysgenesis syndrome (TDS). This syndrome, caused by nonspecific delays and aberrations of early testicular development, may be increasingly common because of deteriorating environmental and life-style factors that impair gonadal development. Geographical and ethnic differences in the incidence of various forms of TDS could be explained either by differences in exposure to adverse factors or by differences in genetic susceptibility to these factors.

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Correspondence to Ewa Rajpert-De Meyts.

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Meyts, E.RD., Hoei-Hansen, C.E., Ottesen, A.M. et al. Le cancer à cellules germinales du testicule, élément constitutif du Syndrome de Dysgénésie Testiculaire: rôle des facteurs environnementaux et de la susceptibilité génétique. Androl. 12, 262–268 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03035137

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