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Global team finds new genetic variants that raise risk of prostate cancer

Date: Sep-18-2014
In a large international study, scientists have identified 23 new genetic variants -

differences in sequences of DNA - that raise men's risk of developing prostate cancer above the

population average.

Researchers have identified 23 new genetic variants that significantly increase men's risk of developing prostate cancer.

Believed to be the largest meta-analysis of its kind, pooling data on over 87,000 men, the study

reveals previously unidentified mutations for prostate cancer among groups of European, African,

Latino and Japanese origin.

"Fifteen variants were identified among men of European ancestry, seven were identified in multi-ancestry

analyses and one was associated with early-onset prostate cancer," write the authors.

Some of the newly identified variants have already been linked to other cancers.

Together with 76 previously known, the new variants account for a third of the inherited

risk of developing prostate cancer in men of European descent. And, because the mutations are

inherited commonly among populations, they can surface in men with little or no family history of

prostate cancer.

All 23 of the variants - more specifically known as Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, or SNPs,

(pronounced "snips") - that the study identifies are to be found in regions of DNA that do not

code for proteins. This suggests they are involved in regulating other genes rather than making

proteins.

The study authors, including two researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in

Baltimore, MD, report their findings in the journal Nature Genetics.

Co-author Alan Partin, a professor of urology at Johns Hopkins, says:

"Inheriting any single one of these genetic variants has only a small effect on prostate cancer

risk. However, a subset of men will inherit many of these variants, putting them at substantially

increased risk for the disease, from 3-6 times the population average."

He suggests men with these risk levels should perhaps be encouraged to have screening

earlier.

Fellow co-author William Isaacs, a professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins, says using these

SNPs could serve as a "molecular family history" to enable better screening guidelines than

traditional family medical history backgrounds, which can be difficult to pin down.

Using the advantage of 'number power' to find the variants

By pooling data from smaller studies, the meta-analysis has the advantage of "number power," as

Prof. Isaacs explains:

"There is a power in numbers that helped us find new variants that were only hinted at in

smaller study populations, especially among minority men, and as we found the same variants across

several populations, the evidence became stronger that they were definitively linked to prostate

cancer."

All told, the samples included in the meta-analysis contained data from 43,303 prostate cancer

patients and 43,737 men without prostate cancer.

The analysis covered over 10 million areas of the genome looking for SNPs, where one sequence of

DNA is swapped over for another.

The researchers compared the scanned genome regions of prostate cancer patients with those of

men without prostate cancer to find the 23 new SNPs.

Meanwhile, Medical News Today also learned of a new genetic study led by researchers from the University of

Pittsburgh, PA, which may lead to a more accurate test for

aggressive prostate cancer and new ways to treat it.

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD

View all articles written by Catharine, or follow her on:

Courtesy: Medical News Today
Note: Any medical information available in this news section is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional.