Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men 15 to 45. Nick Voorhees never imagined it would happen to him.
"I thought I was invincible, an athlete, and nothing was going to happen," he said.
Just being young and male like Nick is the biggest risk factor, but now researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have identified a subset of young men who may be at even higher risk - those who smoke marijuana.
"We found that men who reported being marijuana users had about a 70 percent increased risk of developing testicular cancer and it tended to be higher for men who had used it for longer periods of time, say at least 10 years, or men who had started using it when they were younger," said Dr. Stephen Schwartz.
Researchers found that the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, not only activates the brain, but also the testes. That's what helped launch this study. But researchers say it's too early yet to draw conclusions about marijuana's role in testicular cancer.
"I wouldn't add it as a risk factor. We're the only one study that's looked at this question and whether it holds as a risk factor that we can count on in the long term on I don't know yet," said Dr. Schwartz.
All of the men in the study were from the Puget Sound area. The next stage of the research will involve cancer tissue samples looking for those molecules known to interact with marijuana.
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