Human Reproduction, Vol. 18, No. 4, 796-801,
April 2003
© 2003 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
Testicular cancer and Hodgkin’s disease: evaluation of semen quality
1 University Laboratory of Seminology and Immunology of Reproduction, Department of Medical Pathophysiology, Policlinico ‘Umberto I’, 2 Dipartimento Biotecnologie Cellulari ed Ematologia and 3 Chair of Health Statistics, Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, 00161, Rome, Italy
4 To whom correspondence should be addressed. e-mail: loredana.gandini{at}uniroma1.it
BACKGROUND: The aim of our study was to establish whether there is a difference in semen quality between patients with testicular cancer (TC) and Hodgkin’s disease (HD). METHODS: We evaluated 342 patients affected by TC (n = 232) or HD (n = 110) who cryobanked sperm before initiating chemo- or radiotherapy. All TC patients were evaluated 
1 month after orchidectomy. RESULTS: A total of 14 patients were azoospermic or cryptozoospermic. In the TC group (n = 222) the mean of the semen parameters was normal according to the World Health Organization (1992). However, dividing the cases into total sperm count 
40x106/ejaculate and <40x106/ejaculate, 35.5% of the patients showed an impaired semen quality. The quality of sperm parameters was higher in seminoma patients than for the other histological groups. A significant difference for all semen variables was observed between patients with serum 
hCG levels classified as pathological (>5 mIU/ml) and those with normal serum hCG. Comparison of semen parameters between TC stages I and II showed no significant differences. In the HD group (n = 106), we found that by and large they showed normal spermatogenesis, with only 24.5% having a total sperm count <40x106/ejaculate. There was a significant decrease in semen quality in stages III and IV of HD. CONCLUSIONS: Better semen quality was observed in patients with HD than in those with TC. The semen quality observed in our TC and HD groups seems better than previous results reported in the literature.
Key words: Hodgkin’s disease/semen quality/testicular cancer
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