Gene Gems Editorial - April 2008
This issue covers news of important breakthroughs in our understanding of prostate cancer. One of the mysteries of this common cancer is its unpredictability: although some forms grow quickly and spread to the rest of the body, many do not. As a result, most affected men will die with - rather than from - the disease.
Being able to predict which prostate cancers require aggressive treatment and which do not is clearly an important problem to solve. As with many areas of modern medicine, this is something that genetics research is helping to shed light on. Identifying the subtle gene changes that influence a man’s risk of prostate cancer may lead to new tests to help doctors decide on the best course of treatment, as well as pinpointing targets for novel drugs.
But as with other new genetic findings, experts have cautioned against rushing to market new consumer tests that claim to predict an individual’s risk of becoming ill. Although the gene changes that affect our health are being identified with astonishing speed, there’s still a lot we don’t know – and tests based on half the story could give misleading information.
Some gene discoveries, however, could lead to real clinical benefits in the near future. For example, scientists have also discovered that men who inherit faulty versions of two genes involved in hereditary breast cancer seem to be at increased risk of the more aggressive form of prostate cancer. An ongoing international study aims to find out if targeted genetic screening to identify these men would increase their chances of survival – read on for details of this and other exciting new developments.