Human sperm chromosomes. Long-term effect of cancer treatment.

The long-term cytogenetic effect of radio- or chemotherapy or both on male germ cells was evaluated by study of the chromosomal abnormalities in spermatozoa of four men treated for cancer 5-18 years earlier. The cytogenetic analysis of 422 sperm metaphases showed no differences in the aneuploidy rate. The incidence of structural chromosome aberrations was 14.0%, however, which is much higher than in controls. Thus, the high incidence of structurally aberrant spermatozoa observed in our long-term study indicates that antitumoral treatments affect stem-cell spermatogonia and that aberrant cells can survive germinal selection and produce abnormal spermatozoa.