Cancer Cluster

[CharliePhant]

I was diagnosed this summer with a seminoma -- but I know of five other guys in my office who were diagnosed w/TC (various types) in the last few years. Then last night I got a call from yet another guy who was just diagnosed yesterday. That's seven cases total.

This is admittedly a big workplace (I'm guessing around 1000 people work here) but it still seems like a bit of a statistical anomaly. Does anybody know of any research into the causes of TC in general and to cancer clusters in specific?

FYI this is an office setting (a bit of an unusual one for various reasons, but an office nonetheless) not a manufacturer or anything like that.

Thanks!

[Davepet]

According to this site:
http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/htm...html&x=17&y=13

Your group is defying the statistics of 5.4 cases per 100,000 men. I do not recall any studies of cancer clusters relating to TC. In what way is your office setting "unusual"?

Dave

[CharliePhant]

We work in a high-stress office setting with a vast number of short term visitors (thousands per day).

One of the buildings we work in is a historic structure (w/whatever environmental issues that entails).

The other is built on top of an underground river that at point had severe environmental contamination.

There are 120 men who hold the same position that I hold -- of them, I'm aware of three diagnosed with testicular cancer in the last two years. Additionally a number of people in other job classifications have been diagnosed as well. I'm aware of 7 in total, although I've been told that there are others out there who have kept their diagnosis confidential.

The incidence is obviously higher than one would expect, but I'm curious if that's a statistical anomaly or something significant.

[Fed]

This is very bizarre. That's a very concentrated cluster given that there are only about 9,000 cases of testicular cancer in the U.S. annually.

[Paul54]

That is a little scary but I'm sure there is much more to this. A good study would include finding out how long each has lived there, where they came from, what exposures they had before arrival, and where they spend time when not in the office.

There are three guys out of 150 in my office that had TC. That's 1 in 50. The overall national average is something like 1 per 280. I got mine 5 years after moving to Rhode Island. But I'd spent 49 years in New Jersey, Connecticut, Texas and Virginia, plus I've spent time in 30 other states and 34 countries. One of the other guys, a Brit, was diagnosed 15 years ago in the UK. The third was diagnosed a year after getting here after living 45 years in the Mid-West, primarily the Chicago area.

If you think there is something about your office that has caused the cluster, get your company to start an investigation. Who know? It could be some combination of stress and environmental.