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Background: The repeated global pandemic of the new virus has led to interest in the possibility of severe pneumonia among cancer patients and survivors. Here, we aimed to assess the association between incident cancer and risk of death from pneumonia in Japanese in a large population‐based cohort study. Methods: We used the data from The Japan Public Health Center‐based Prospective Study (JPHC Study), which enrolled subjects aged 40 to 69 between 1990 and 1994 and followed their cancer incidence and mortality until 2013. After identifying 103,757 eligible subjects for analysis and imputing missing data on covariates by the chained equations approach, we conducted propensity score‐matched analysis for 1:4 matching, leaving 14,520 cases diagnosed with cancer and 48,947 controls without cancer during the study period for final analysis. A Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) and corresponding confidence interval (CI) for the risk of death from pneumonia with comparison of cancer cases and cancer‐free controls. Results: Compared to cancer‐free individuals, risk of death from pneumonia was significantly higher among those who had any diagnosed cancer (HR, 1.41; 95%CI, 1.08–1.84); those within 1 year of diagnosis (HR, 23.0; 95% CI, 2.98–177.3); within 1 to <2 years (HR, 3.66; 95% CI, 1.04–12.9); and those with regional spread or distant metastatic cancer at initial diagnosis (HR, 2.01; 95% CI, 1.26–3.21). A history of lung, oesophageal, and head and neck cancer conferred the higher risk among site‐specific cancers. Conclusion: We found a positive association between incident cancer and risk of death from pneumonia in this study. These results imply the possibility that the immunocompromised status and respiratory failure due to antitumor treatment may have resulted in a more severe outcome from pneumonia among cancer survivors than the general population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Varicocele is a common cause of male infertility. It is reported that low sperm concentration, motility and morphology are indicative of increased sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI) in men with varicocele. Although research has been conducted into the relationship between varicocele and DFI, little is known about seminal oxidation–reduction potential (ORP) in varicocele patients. We assessed the relationship between varicocele with seminal ORP and sperm DFI in both fertile and infertile men. This prospective case–control study compared the findings from infertile men with varicocele to those of men with normal spermatogenesis without varicocele. Semen samples were collected and assessed using the WHO (2010) guidelines. ORP was measured (mV) and normalized to sperm concentration (mV/106 sperm/mL). DFI was measured using the sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA) method. For group comparisons, only samples with a concentration >1 × 106 sperm/mL were included. Infertile men with varicocele had significantly lower mean sperm concentration, motility and total sperm count. Conversely, infertile men with varicocele had a significantly higher mean serum FSH level, and higher ORP and DFI values than fertile controls. ORP was higher in patients with varicocele and positively correlated with DFI (p < 0.01). ORP and DFI showed significant negative correlations with semen parameters (sperm concentration, motility and total sperm count) in infertile men with a varicocele. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]