§ Mr. Cohenasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish for each of the past 10 years the number of men known to be suffering from cancer of the testicles; and if he will make a statement on the findings of the recent report of the Medical Research Council's Ludwig institute for cancer research at Cambridge on this matter, and on the trend in testicular cancer.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe report confirms the observation made by several cancer registries that the incidence of testicular tumours is increasing. The only factor yet identified as a probable cause of this increase is the congential lesion of failure of descent of one or both testes. Research is continuing. The figures requested for the past 10 years for which information is available are as follows:
Registration Crude rate per 100,000 population 1971 650 2.72 1972 666 2.78 1973 705 2.93 1974 769 3.19 1975 765 3.18 1976 764 3.17 1977 774 3.21 1978 827 3.44 1979 *741 3.07 1980 *843 3.49 1981 †707 2.93 *Subject to revision because of late registrations. †Provisional.