What is the Link Between Testicular Microlithiaisis and Testicular Cancer?

Testicular cancer can cause testicular microlithiaisis. When a man has testicular microlithiaisis, doctors observe small clusters of calcium in the images from a ultrasound examination. Why does the man's body produce that unneeded calcium? That question remains unanswered.

Also unanswered is this question: Can microlithiaisis cause cancer? This article will examine a couple of studies that sought to answer that very question. Those two studies failed to provide men with a definitive answer to the above question. They did not, however, negate entirely the sound basis for that question.

In 2001 the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center conducted a limited study of 528 men. The Center found that of those 528 men, 48 had testicular microlithiaisis. Another 38 men within the study group of 528 subjects had not testicular microlithiaisis, but did have testicular cancer.

That study at Sloan Kettering did not collect statistics on only testicular microlithiaisis and testicular cancer. The scientists participating in that study also looked for evidence of an intratesticular mass. Among the 528 study subjects, the scientists found 90 men with an intratesticular mass.

The study scientists then compared the data on testicular mass to the data on both testicular microlithiaisis and testicular cancer. Of the 90 men with a testicular mass, 43 had testicular cancer. Of that same group of 90 men, 23 had testicular microlithiaisis. Pathologic findings showed that of the 90 men with a testicular mass, 43 had benign findings. There were no pathologic findings for 4 of the men with a testicular mass.

Although this study involved only a relatively small group of men, still the research scientists at Sloan Kettering concluded that there was reason to link the occurrence of testicular cancer to a prior instance of testicular microlithiaisis. That conclusion does not agree with the conclusion obtained from a second study. That study, a larger and seemingly more lengthy study, took place in Turkey.