TESTICULAR carcinoma accounts for approximately 1 per cent of all deaths from cancer in males. The almost invariable fatal outcome of untreated testicular tumors emphasizes the urgency of the problem. Little is known of the cause of this cancer. One of the few known factors in the problem of testicular neoplasia is the increased incidence of carcinoma in patients with preexisting ectopy or cryptorchidism. One of the unknown factors is the definitive reason for this increase. (We have used the terms ectopy and cryptorchidism almost synonomously although they are distinct entities.)
In an analysis of 10,000 inductees examined during the last war, the percentage of men showing atrophy of the testis was approximately 1.7 per cent.1 In other words, there were 165 atrophic testes among 152 of these 10,000 persons. The figure for undescended testes, both inguinal and abdominal, was approximately half of this, i. e., 0.8 per cent