Science News Testicular Tumors May Explain Why Some Diseases Are More Common In Children Of Older Fathers
ScienceDaily (Oct. 26, 2009) — A rare form of testicular tumour has provided scientists with new insights into how genetic changes (mutations) arise in our children. The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Danish Cancer Society, could explain why certain diseases are more common in the children of older fathers.


Mutations can occur in different cells of the body and at different times during life. Some, such as those which occur in 'germ cells' (those which create sperm or eggs), cause changes which affect the offspring; those which occur in other cells can lead to tumours, but are not inherited.

In work published in Nature Genetics, researchers at the University of Oxford and Copenhagen University Hospital describe a surprising link between certain severe childhood genetic disorders and rare testicular tumours occurring in older men: the germ cells that make the mutant gene-carrying sperm seem to be the same cells that produce the tumour.