Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers have identified a genetic marker that is associated with an earlier onset of prostate cancer in Caucasian men who have a family history of prostate cancer. If the data are confirmed, the marker may help clinicians personalize prostate cancer screening.
Veda Giri, M.D., a medical oncologist and director of the Prostate Cancer Risk Assessment Program at Fox Chase, will present the data at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology on Saturday, May 30.
"Genetic testing for prostate cancer is not yet clinically well characterized as it is for breast, ovarian cancer and colon cancer," Giri says. "Markers such as this one are useful because they may help clinicians distinguish between men who are at risk for earlier onset of disease where intensive screening approaches can be discussed. Men who do not carry genetic markers of risk may not need such screening measures."
More than half of all prostate tumors carry a fusion gene called, TMPRSS2-ERG, which may have a role in prostate cancer formation. Recently, scientists reported that a single nucleotide polymorphism, called the Met160Val SNP (also referred to as rs12329760), is associated with the gene fusion. Specifically, prostate cancer patients who carry the T allele of Met160Val are more likely to have a prostate tumor with the gene fusion than patients who have the C allele.