Malignant tumours as causes of death of former athletes

Abstract

The paper analyzes 218 postmortem findings obtained in former top level athletes who had died of malignant tumors. The latter were carcinomas in a majority of instances, 86.4%. The hypothesis is presented that repetitive exhausting athletic efforts, which have been proved to lead, apart from other processes, also to degradation of nucleic acids in cell nuclei, according to the Todaro Heubner theory may participate in an activation of cellular oncogenous genes. This hypothesis is substantiated by statistically significantly increased incidence of malignant tumors, which are both more frequent and earlier to develop in former top level athletes than in the remaining male population. No interdependence has been found between the localization of a malignant tumor and the sort of athletic activity pursued.