epidemiology of testicular cancer
Last edited 05/2019 and last reviewed 12/2022
In the year 2010, around 2300 men in the UK were diagnosed with testicular cancer
- Incidence rates for testicular cancer has more than doubled in the last 40 years in UK (1)
- in 1971 there were 2.8 newly diagnosed cases per 100,000 men which increased to 7.2 per 100,000 men in 2010
- at the same period mortality rates for testicular tumour decreased from around one death per 100,000 men in 1971 to just over 0.2 per 100,000 men in 2010.
- there are around 2,300 new testicular cancer cases in the UK every year,
that's more than 6 every day (2013-2015)
- the highest rates of testicular cancer are reported for white Caucasian populations in industrialised countries, especially in western and northern Europe and Australia/New Zealand
- within the European Union (EU), there is an approximately five-fold variation
in incidence between countries with the highest and lowest incidence
rates. e.g. - in Denmark, age-standardised rates (ASRs) is around 10 per
100,000, while Romania and Greece have ASRs of less than 2 per 100,000.
The UK ASR (6.9 per 100,000) is above the EU average
- In UK, the incidence rate of testicular cancer
- in males in the UK, testicular cancer is the 17th most common cancer, with around 2,300 new cases in 2015
- testicular cancer accounts for 1% of all new cancer cases in males in the UK (2015)
- incidence rates for testicular cancer in the UK are highest in males aged 30 to 34 (2013-2015)
- since the early 1990s, testicular cancer incidence rates have increased by more than a quarter (27%) in males in the UK
- over the last decade, testicular cancer incidence rates have increased by a tenth (10%) in males in the UK
- most testicular cancers occur in descended testicles
- testicular cancer in England is less common in males living in the most deprived areas. Testicular cancer is more common in White males than in Asian or Black males
- an estimated 34,900 men who had previously been diagnosed with testicular cancer were alive in the UK at the end of 2010
Reference: