Breast and prostate cancer gene link
Men diagnosed with prostate cancer are more likely to have an aggressive form of the disease if they carry faulty genes that cause hereditary breast cancer, say UK researchers. The findings, published in the British Journal of Cancer, show that prostate tumour samples from this group of affected men show the hallmarks of more advanced disease.
Most affected men develop the disease after the age of fifty and, while it can become aggressive in some, many never have symptoms and eventually die of other causes. New tests to help doctors identify patients at high risk of the aggressive form could help them make more informed treatment decisions.
The new research, carried out by scientists based in Cambridge and Surrey, builds on earlier work showing that men who inherit faulty versions of the breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 are at increased risk of developing prostate cancer.
The team looked at tumour samples from 20 men with prostate cancer who carried these gene mutations. They found that the cancer was more advanced in these samples than those from a control group of men, who had prostate cancer, but who did not have the BRCA gene mutations.
The international IMPACT trial (Identification of Men with a genetic predisposition to ProstAte Cancer) aims to see whether prostate cancer screening can be targeted at men who carry the BRCA gene changes. It also aims to discover whether men who carry these genetic alterations are more likely to die from the disease – for further details visit the website at http://impact-study.co.uk
Sources:
Prostate cancer in male BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers has a more aggressive phenotype
British Journal of Cancer 98, 502-507 (2008).
http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v98/n2/abs/6604132a.html
Prostate cancer in male BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers has a more aggressive phenotype
British Journal of Cancer 98, 502-507 (2008).
http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v98/n2/abs/6604132a.html