Prostate cancer gene links identified

Published on Sunday 10 July 2011 15:35

The discovery of new genes linked to prostate cancer could help calculate men's risk of developing the disease, experts have revealed.

Researchers in the UK have found seven new genetic variants linked to prostate cancer, adding to 33 previously discovered links.

Men with most of the variants have a 50-50 chance of developing the disease.

Scientists can currently predict a woman's risk of breast cancer based on genes, but the same has so far not been available for prostate cancer - the most common cancer in men.

For the latest study published in Nature Genetics, researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research in Cambridge studied the genes of almost 60,000 men.

They found seven new regions of the genome - the entire map of our genes - that increased a man's chances of developing prostate cancer.

Lead researcher Professor Ros Eeles said that along with previous discoveries, this now meant they had found 40 genetic links which raised the risk of the cancer, which affects around 2,700 men in Scotland each year.

"Together they account for around 25 per cent of the inherited risk," Prof Eeles said.

"This means that the 1 per cent of men who carry most of these variants are about four times more likely than an average person to have prostate cancer, giving them a nearly one in two chance of developing the disease."

Prof Eeles said they did not yet know if this was a type of prostate cancer that needed earlier treatment. Further work is being carried out to try to see if this is the case.

But the researcher added: "These results bring nearer the day when we can use genetics to tailor our screening and treatment of men at risk of this disease."

Dr Kate Holmes, research manager at the Prostate Cancer Charity, said: "Although not definitive, the results of this large study are an incredibly useful foundation from which we may be able to calculate genetic levels of increased risk for men, a tool which is commonly used for predicting breast cancer risk, but is currently not available for prostate cancer.

"It is widely known that prostate cancer can run in families, but to date we still have no way of testing men to see if they are carrying genetic traits that will make them more susceptible to the disease in the future."

Dr Julie Sharp, from Cancer Research UK, said: "This type of research is vital to understanding more about prostate cancer and will help find new ways to prevent the disease and develop more targeted treatments."