Cancer
Men With Extra X Chromosome May Have Higher Risk of Some Cancers
By Journal of the National Cancer Institute
Aug 19, 2005, 04:59

A new study has found that men with Klinefelter syndrome--having one or more extra X chromosomes--may have an elevated risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and breast and lung cancers.

Men with Klinefelter syndrome may have hypogonadism or other hormonal, physical, or developmental abnormalities. Case reports have suggested that these men may have an increased risk of several cancers, but information about the long-term cancer risks in these men is limited by the lack of large cohort studies.

To examine the cancer risks among men with Klinefelter syndrome, Anthony J. Swerdlow, D.Sc., of the Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton, England, and colleagues conducted a cohort study, following 3,518 men who had been diagnosed with the syndrome in Britain between 1959 and 2002. They compared cancer incidence and mortality among these men with that of men in the British population.

Compared with the general population, men with Klinefelter syndrome had higher mortality from lung cancer, breast cancer, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma and lower mortality from prostate cancer. Mortality from breast cancer among men with 47,XXY mosaicism and mortality from non-Hodgkin lymphoma among men with a 48,XXYY constitution were particularly high. The authors conclude that these results support a hormonal etiology for breast cancer in men and for prostate cancer.

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