Associations between male infertility and cancer are gaining clinical attention. Relationships between infertility and cancer have traditionally been studied in women, but recent work has focused on the male component of reproduction.
Infertile men are at an elevated risk to develop various malignancies later in life, primarily genitourinary malignancies such as testicular and prostate cancer. Rates of testicular and high-grade prostate cancer in infertile men appear to be at least double the risk in the general population.
The link between infertility and malignancy highlights the importance of thorough evaluation and long-term follow up—beyond a simple semen analysis. A detailed urologic evaluation, possibly including scrotal ultrasound, may be beneficial to screen infertile men for testicular cancer. Publications have also demonstrated that male infertility can be a biomarker for cancer risk in first- and second-degree relatives.
