engleski

Testicular cancer incidence and mortality trends in Croatia

Testicular cancer is a rare malignancy but in fact represents the most common cancer and an important source of morbidity in young male population. Testicular cancer incidence has been constantly increasing worldwide over the 20th century. The steepest increase was described among European ancestry populations. Even though the aetiology of testicular cancer is still largely unclear the best-practice management and advances in therapy resulted in large decline in mortality. Present study is the first to analyse the testicular cancer epidemiology in Croatian population, presenting incidence and mortality trends for the period 1983-2007. Incidence data were obtained from the Croatian National Cancer Registry while numbers of testicular cancer deaths were obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics. Age-standardised incidence and mortality rates for the period 1983-2007 were calculated by the direct standardization method, using the World standard population as a reference. In 2007, among 10, 947 of incident male cancers, 147 (1.34%) cases were testicular cancers. Of all reported, 62.4% occurred in men aged 15-34 while the highest contribution in the overall cancer incidence was found in the age group 20-24 (43.3%). In 25-year period, 2, 035 cases of newly diagnosed testicular cancers were registered representing 0.89% of male cancer incidence in Croatia. Incidence rate showed 3-fold or 212% increase. Starting with 2.12 in 1983 it rose up to 6.61 per 100, 000 in 2007. In the same period, 316 men died of testicular cancer. Death rates varied between 0.15 and 0.66 per 100, 000 showing no statistically significant increase. The incidence to mortality ratio ranged from 3:1 to 17:1 and it increased over the analysed period. Obtained data demonstrate that testicular cancer in Croatian male population is a rare malignancy, but shows higher incidence rate compared with most Mediterranean countries and much higher than that estimated for related Southern European countries or Central and Eastern European region. To the best of our knowledge, the testicular cancer incidence rise in Croatian population appeared to be the highest in Europe and one of the most striking compared with countries worldwide. The accompanying stable mortality trend suggests an improvement of testicular cancer survival over the analysed period. Presented study emphasizes the necessity for further multidisciplinary research, as well as organization of multidisciplinary specialist testicular cancer management centres.

testicular cancer

nije evidentirano