More Gene Variations Found That Raise Prostate Cancer Risk

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Monday, February 11, 2008; 10:00 AM

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MONDAY, Feb. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists have uncovered at least 10 new genetic variations associated with an increased risk for prostate cancer.

The new findings double the number of genetic variants that are known to be associated with prostate cancer. Three reports detail the discoveries in the Feb. 10 online edition of Nature Genetics.

"Predisposition to prostate cancer, at least in part, is due to variations in a person's genetic code," said Dr. Rosalind Eeles, a Reader in Clinical Cancer Genetics in The Institute of Cancer Research, in Sutton, U.K., and lead author of one of the reports.

"There are many variants in the genome which confer prostate cancer risk, and these results move us nearer to being able to develop a profile of genetic variation which predicts for increased risk of the disease. This will enable us to target screening, prevention strategies and treatment," she said.

Each of the three reports was done by a different group, one in the United States, one in Great Britain, and one in Iceland. Each group studied thousands of men with and without prostate cancer.

In the first report, Eeles, and her colleagues identified seven genetic variances that were associated with prostate cancer on chromosomes 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 19 and X.

"We have studied hundreds of thousands of genetic variants in over 10,000 men both with and without prostate cancer," Eeles said. "We have found seven new sites in the human genome that are linked to men's risk of developing prostate cancer."

Among these new sites is one gene called MSMB which could possibly be used in screening for prostate cancer and disease monitoring, Eeles noted. "Another of the sites harbors a gene called LMTK2, which might be a target for new treatments. These newly identified genetic alterations are present in over half of all prostate cancer cases. They each increase a person's risk of the disease by up to 60 percent."

In the second report, Dr. Stephen Chanock, head of the Genomic Variation Section at the U.S. National Cancer Institute, and his colleagues found genes associated with prostate cancer on chromosomes 7, 10 and 11, as well as nine other gene locations that are suggestive of an association with prostate cancer.