Testicular cancer and viral infections: a systematic literature review and meta-analysis.

In 1984, Newell and coworkers were the first to suggest that testicular cancer might have a viral etiology since it showed similar characteristics to Hodgkin's lymphoma. A systematic literature review and meta-analysis was conducted to investigate a possible association between viral infections (EBV, CMV, Parvovirus B19, HPV, and HIV) and testicular cancer. Articles published from 1985 through June 2010 were located from MEDLINE and EMBASE databases, 21 articles were finally included in the review. For infection with EBV, CMV, Parvovirus B19, and HIV the pooled OR were 4.80 (95% CI 0.98-23.54), 1.85 (95% CI 0.92-3.70), 2.86 (95% CI 0.35-23.17), and 1.79 (95% CI 1.45-2.21) respectively. No pooling was possible for HPV infection studies due to small numbers. The results support a possible association, but more epidemiological studies with better viral identification and localization methods are needed to verify these findings.