Men with susceptibility for prostate cancer will soon be identifiable through a simple DNA test.
So hope scientists at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet, who have shown that men carrying a combination of known risk genes run a four to five times higher risk of developing prostate cancer.
At present, men with suspected prostate cancer are identified mainly using what are known as PSA tests. However, the test has a relatively 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 at 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, which makes 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.