Study identifies multiple genetic risk factors for prost...( the predictive strength varying depend...)

the predictive strength varying depending on the variant. Because almost all the risk factors were of highest frequency in African Americans, they may contribute to the known higher rate of prostate cancer among African Americans compared with other U.S. populations. The predictive power of the variants may also be useful in the prevention of prostate cancer. "Clinical testing of these genetic variants may help us identify men who should be prioritized for early prostate cancer screening and prevention efforts," says Reich.

The study also produced novel biological findings. It revealed that each genetic contributor to prostate cancer risk is located outside of the coding regions of genes, in regions previously designated as junk DNA. "The discovery of multiple, independent genetic changes that are in close proximity to one another, but outside of any known gene, suggests that these results may also teach us about novel molecular mechanisms whereby DNA changes can alter risk of disease," says Brian Henderson, the paper's senior co-author and dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Two papers in 2006 highlighted this same chromosomal region as important in prostate cancer. The company deCODE genetics in Iceland first identified two specific genetic variants that contributed to risk for prostate cancer. The HMS/USC group then published a paper that identified a small region (about 4 million nucleotides, or 1/1,000th of the genome) as likely to contain important genetic risk factors. As part of this study, the HMS/USC group carried out a whole-genome screen for prostate cancer genes in about 2,500 African Americans. The paper suggested that more variants were likely in the region.

To find the additional risk factors in the current study, the team systematically tested genetic changes in this region of the genome in roughly 7,500 African American, Japanese American, Native Hawaiian, Latino, and European American men with and without
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Contact: Jennifer Chan
chanj@usc.edu
323-442-2830
University of Southern California
1-Apr-2007

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