Prenatal Exposure to Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and Risk of Testicular Cancer (DISRUPT)
January 2019 – December 2025
Background
According to the testicular dysgenesis syndrome hypothesis, it has been proposed that testicular cancer present in adult life has a fetal origin and may be a result of testicular insults during early fetal development, including exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs).
Aims and Study Design
The overall aim of DISRUPT is to investigate the prospective association between prenatal exposures to target EDCs and the risk of testicular cancer in male offspring, exploring both individual compound exposures and cocktail effects.
To assess testicular cancer diagnoses and target exposure levels in fetal life, the project will utilize access to Danish nationwide health registries and a unique collection of maternal biosamples (gold standard) collected from mothers during the index pregnancy 22-42 years ago.
In two sub-studies:
i. We will investigate maternal nicotine exposure during pregnancy and the risk of testicular cancer using data on cotinine levels in serum as a proxy of cigarette smoke.
ii. The project will further aim to understand alterations in metabolic reprogramming in the early development of testicular cancer and identify novel metabolomic fetal biomarkers that serve as indictors of testicular cancer in later life.
To assess testicular cancer diagnoses and target exposure levels in fetal life, the project will utilize access to Danish nationwide health registries and a unique collection of maternal biosamples (gold standard) collected from mothers during the index pregnancy 22-42 years ago.
In two sub-studies:
i. We will investigate maternal nicotine exposure during pregnancy and the risk of testicular cancer using data on cotinine levels in serum as a proxy of cigarette smoke.
ii. The project will further aim to understand alterations in metabolic reprogramming in the early development of testicular cancer and identify novel metabolomic fetal biomarkers that serve as indictors of testicular cancer in later life.
The Research Team behind DISRUPT
The international research group behind DISRUPT consist of leading scientist in multidisciplinary fields of male reproductive health, endocrinology, biostatistics, epidemiology, exposure assessment and analytical chemistry. Apart from participants from EDMaRC (Anders Juul (PI), Anna-Maria Andersson, Niels Erik Skakkebæk, Cecilie Skaarup Uldbjerg, Astrid Linnea Beck) and University of Copenhagen (Youn-Hee Lim, Jørgen Holm Petersen), other partners include Elvira Bräuner, the Danish Statens Serum Institut (SSI) (Madeleine Ernst, Francesco Russo), the Danish National Biobank (Karina Meden Sørensen), TC Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, USA (Russ Hauser, Brent Coull), Lund University, Sweden (Christian Lindh) and Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland (Panu Rantakokko).
Anders Juul (PI)
MDSc, Professor