Scientists Discover Gene Linked to Higher Rates of Prostate Cancer (maybe useful, not PC results)

NY Times ^ | May 8, 2006 | NICHOLAS WADE

[neverdem]

A team of scientists says it has detected a variant gene associated with prostate cancer, a finding that may make possible a diagnostic test to help decide which patients are the best candidates for aggressive treatment.

The discovery, by DeCode Genetics, a gene-finding company in Iceland, may also help explain why African-Americans, in whom the variant is more common, have a greater incidence of the disease.

Prostate cancer is a common disease with many causes, both genetic and environmental. Detection of the underlying genes is difficult because each seems to have only a small effect on the risk of getting the disease. Several candidate genes have been identified in one family or population but have generally not been confirmed by researchers trying to replicate the finding in other populations.

The new variant, described online yesterday in the journal Nature Genetics, was first found in Icelandic men and then detected in Sweden and in two populations in the United States. David Altshuler, a medical geneticist at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass., said the result was statistically convincing and, because it was tested in four populations, "a model for how these things should be done."

The variant is carried by about 13 percent of men of European ancestry. It raises the risk of getting prostate cancer by 60 percent, compared with men who are not carriers, and accounts for about 8 percent of all cases, according to the scientists, led by Laufey T. Amundadottir of DeCode.

Among African-Americans, the variant carries the same risk but is twice as common. This could explain "a significant part" of the reason that prostate cancer is more common in this population, said Dr. Kari Stefansson, DeCode's chief executive.

Dr. Stefansson said the variant was "the first major gene in prostate cancer and the first to..."

[tallhappy]

Go Thorgeir!!

I do wish these articles said what the gene is. half the articles of this sort leave that detail out.

[tallhappy]

Having read the whole article I do see they described the discovery and gene.

I have been impressed by what Decode has been doing. Their approach is good -- comprehensive and focused. It will provide a lot of basic discoveries as well as those that may have more imediate medical benefits.

I love how everyone from Iceland is named either -son or -dottir.

[TexasTransplant]

Last time I checked if a male exceeds 80 years of age he is almost 100% likely to have at least "had" or will "have" Prostate Cancer, it is a fact of life.

Feel free to correct me because I very much wish to be wrong.

TT

[neverdem]

Last time I checked if a male exceeds 80 years of age he is almost 100% likely to have at least "had" or will "have" Prostate Cancer, it is a fact of life.

If he's not dead from it at that age, the odds are that he will die from something else, assuming it doesn't have an aggressive nature, i.e. grow rapidly invading adjacent organs and metastasize.

[tinamina]

What you've heard is true, but the good news is that if you don.t get it until age 80, prostate cancer is not likely to be the cause of death.

[RadioAstronomer]

Last time I checked if a male exceeds 80 years of age he is almost 100% likely to have at least "had" or will "have" Prostate Cancer, it is a fact of life.

???

From here:

http://www.utah.edu/unews/releases/01/jan/prostate.html

“In the general population, between 5 percent and 10 percent of men get prostate cancer by age 80,”

[FOG724]

Just as many men die of prostate cancer as women die of breast cancer but breast cancer research receives 600 times the funding.

[neverdem]

Just as many men die of prostate cancer as women die of breast cancer but breast cancer research receives 600 times the funding.

Do you have the mortality stats on prostate and breast cancer?

[neverdem]

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[FOG724]

Do you have the mortality stats on prostate and breast cancer?

Estimated New Cancer Cases and Deaths by Sex for All Sites, US, 2006*

[neverdem]

FOG724 said: "Just as many men die of prostate cancer as women die of breast cancer but breast cancer research receives 600 times the funding."

So I commend you for obtaining the pdf link.

Estimated Deaths Female Breast cancer 40,970

Estimated Deaths prostate cancer 27,350

Estimated New Cancer Cases and Deaths by Sex for All Sites, US, 2006*

*Rounded to the nearest 10; estimated new cases exclude basal and squamous cell skin cancers and in situ carcinomas except urinary bladder. About 61,980 carcinoma in situ of the breast and 49,710 melanoma in situ will be newly diagnosed in 2006. †Estimated deaths for colon and rectum cancers are combined. ‡More deaths than cases suggests lack of specificity in recording underlying causes of death on death certificates.

Source: Estimates of new cases are based on incidence rates from 1979 to 2002, National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program, nine oldest registries. Estimates of deaths are based on data from US Mortality Public Use Data Tapes, 1969 to 2003, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2006.

©2006, American Cancer Society, Inc., Surveillance Research

http://www.cancer.org/downloads/stt/CAFF06EsCsMc.pdf