GATE1: project on the main male cancer in young people

Testicular tumors are a pathology that occur in young individuals from 15 years of age on up, and represent about 1% of all male neoplasms. However, there is currently a dramatic yearly increase of 3 to 10 new cases every 100,000 male individuals.

Among the potential risk factors of the appearance of testicular tumors, anatomical anomalies associated with an erroneous development of the individual in the womb is recognized as the most significant. Especially telling, however, is how testicular tumors often recur in families. In fact, the pathology is more frequent among parents, children, and siblings.

With the support of the Fondazione Prossimo Mio, the URI-Istituto di Ricerca Urologica of the IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele in Milan has given itself the ambitious objective of realizing an exhaustive study of the genetic profile – using WES-Whole Exome Sequencing – of a large group of patients who are youths and adults with testicular tumors and, consensually, their parents, children, and siblings, in order to identify a group of genes characterizing testicular neoplasia. To that end, about 1500 patients with tumors and these relatives will be enrolled for a total of about 4500 subjects.

Considering the impact that this disease and its cure can have in terms of compromising endocrine factors and/or the fertility of the male population, as well as its many psychological consequences in a fragile and delicate phase of life, research in the field of testicular pathologies assumes particular significance. It permits not only an increase in knowledge relative to the biopathology of the tumor, but also to an improvement in the cure and care of individuals who are affected.