Karolinska: Genetic diagnosis for prostate cancer

Research lead

Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, have assessed the cumulative effect of genes that are known to put men at risk of developing prostate cancer and say they could form the basis of a DNA test.

At present, men with suspected prostate cancer are diagnosed mainly by testing for the blood biomarker known as Prostate Specific Antigen. But this has a low sensitivity, and better methods are needed.

“In the near future, it will be possible to combine PSA tests with simple genetic tests,” says Professor Henrik Grönberg of Karolinska Institutet. “This means that fewer men will have to undergo unnecessary biopsies and that more prostate cancer diagnoses can be made.”

It has long been known that prostate cancer is partly caused by inherited factors that make some men more likely to develop the disease than others. Five relatively common gene variants that affect this risk have so far been identified. However, each of these variants affects the risk only marginally, and knowledge of them has been of no real benefit to individual patients.

The research group at Karolinska Institutet working with US colleagues have analysed the cumulative effect of these gene variants and shown that men who carry four or more risk variants run a four to five times greater risk of developing prostate cancer. This risk is increased even more if they also had close relatives with the disease.

This is the first time that anyone has been able to demonstrate how a combination of genes affect the risk of developing the disease. “The study has made it possible to develop a clinically viable gene test,” says Professor Grönberg.