Doctors sound alarm about a lack of consciousness about a cancer that rises quickly in young men.
Testicular cancer is the most common form of the disease in men aged 20 to 40 and affects nearly 10,000 men every year.
But a study into Ohio State University shows that almost 90 percent that the cancer will most likely strike for a man’s 40th birthday.
And only 35 percent said they would find it necessary to start screening for the disease before this age.
That is despite the cancer – who affects one in 270 young men every year – who is increasingly common in young men.
The researchers say that the findings are worrying, since the disease is more difficult to treat when it is caught in later stages.
Dr. Shawn Dason, the urologist who led the study, said: ‘Testicular cancer usually does not come with painful symptoms. That is why routine self -examination is so important to detect lumps or changes in the testicle. ‘
He added: ‘In my experience, many men are surprised that testicular cancer is most common in young men.
Nathan Adrian, a five-fold Olympic gold medal winner, was diagnosed with testicular cancer at the age of 30 after feeling a hard lump and swelling
He revealed his diagnosis to increase the consciousness of the cancer, which arises in young men
‘It’s something you just don’t expect in the twenty or thirty. A lot of focus from young men may be on developing their career, their daily lives. That is a completely different trail of the mind than perhaps your health. ‘
For the survey, researchers interviewed 1,008 adults in the US – of whom a little fewer than half were men, while the rest were women. Half was also younger than 40 years.
The results showed that just over half of the respondents said it was important to perform monthly cancer checks.
Only 13 percent said testicular cancer was most affected on men under 30 years old.
In the meantime, 63 percent rightly noticed that the disease was previously healable if it was caught early, and 18 percent wrongly suggested that the disease was always painful.
The most common symptoms of the disease are a lump or swelling in the scrotum or a feeling of gravity in the scrotum.
In general, the cancer has a five -year survival rate of about 95 percent if it is caught in early stages before it has spread in the body.
However, if it spreads, this will fall to 73 percent.
Dr. Dason added: ‘We are really lucky in testicular cancer that the vast majority of patients are diagnosed at an early stage.
“That means that the vast majority of patients are actually diagnosed before the cancer has had the opportunity to spread to other parts of the body.”
It is thought that testicular cancer influences younger men because it mainly influences the germ cells, or the reproductive cells that make sperm that are most active at this age.
Studies suggest that people who are larger, from a white ethnic background and have a family history of the disease, have a higher risk, although some studies suggest that overweight does not increase the risk.
And the rates are now rising, which is thought that it is now due to a combination of better screening and linked to the wider increases of cancer diagnoses in young people.
Lance Armstrong, a famous cyclist, was also diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996 at the age of 25 years
A 2024 Study In testicular cancer in California, it discovered that, for those under 39 years old, the percentage of the cancers in two decades had risen by approximately 10 percent from six to 7.3 cases per 100,000 people.
Data from the CDC Also shows an increase in testicular cancer cases in the age group, with the speed of 6.3 to 6.8 cases per 100,000 men from 0 to 39 years from 1999 to 2021 – the last available date.
The first treatment line for the disease is surgery, in which doctors normally remove the affected tumor and testicle.
Further tests are then performed to determine whether the disease has spread before other treatments are offered as an operation to remove lymph nodes and chemotherapy.
Among those who have previously fought against cancer, cyclist Lance Armstrong, who was diagnosed with the disease in 1996 at the age of 25, and five-time Olympic gold medal winner Nathan Adrian, who was diagnosed at the age of 30.
The 6ft 6 -in -swimmer was diagnosed with stage two testicular cancer in December 2018 in the midst of Tokyo 2020 training – saying that he went to doctors after he had felt something swollen and hard in his scrotum.
He was operated on to remove the tumor a few weeks later in his scrotum and, after further tests, he also had a second operation to remove some lymph nodes that were feared to contain the cancer.
Jmichael Shipman, from Texas, was also diagnosed with the cancer at the age of 21 –
He was swimming back a few weeks later and said that he will now check new cancers via surveillance.
In another case, Jmichael Shipman revealed in 2018 that he had been diagnosed with testicular cancer at the age of 21.
The Texas Local said that in February 2017 he was booked in the MD Anderson Cancer Center after finding a large lump on his right testicle.
Two days later he was implemented for an operation and then had one round of chemotherapy.
He also froze his sperm for chemotherapy after he was told that the regime could make a man infertile for two years. It is not clear whether he has had children now.
The Ohio State University Survey was Led between 2 and 5 May this year with the help of the SSRS-Opiniepanel Omnibus, a monthly monthly study of a representative sample of the American public.
Of the respondents, 978 filled answers to the questions via the web while 30 responded over the telephone.
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