Inhibin B: are modified ranges needed for orchiectomised testicular cancer patients?

• 来源期刊: 亚洲男性学杂志（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2019,（4）
• 页码范围: 332-336
• 页数: 5页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.4103/aja.aja_93_18

摘要

Inhibin B is a gonadal hormone that downregulates the pituitary production of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH).In recent years,inhibin B has proved to be an excellent marker of spermatogenesis and even a predictive factor for the recovery of fertility in patients undergoing orchiectomy and antineoplastic treatments.We propose to study inhibin B levels in orchiectomised testicular cancer patients,in order to identify a minimum value representative of normal semen quality.This retrospective study evaluates hormonal and semen parameters of 290 normozoospermic patients attending the Laboratory of Seminology-Sperm Bank "Loredana Gandini" (Rome,Italy) for cryopreservation of seminal fluid following a diagnosis of testicular cancer (TC group) and 117 healthy,normozoospermic men as a control group (CTR group).The percentile distribution of gonadotropin and inhibin B values in the TC and CTR groups was analyzed.There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups in the levels of all hormones (P ＜ 0.001) and in all semen parameters (P ＜ 0.05).About 20％ of TC patients revealed inhibin B levels below the 5th percentile of CTR group,despite normozoospermia,and 31.4％ had normal spermatogenesis in the presence of FSH values ＞95th percentile of CTR group.Orchiectomised patients for testicular cancer presented inhibin B levels lower than healthy patients,despite normozoospermia.Our study revealed the poor sensitivity of the current inhibin B reference range when applied to monorchidic patients,suggesting the need to establish more representative ranges to enable more appropriate counseling in relation to the patient's new endocrine condition.