A genetic variant that puts around one man in every 10 at higher risk of prostate cancer has been discovered, marking a milestone in understanding and diagnosing the most common cancer among men.
This is the first identification of a major genetic risk factor for prostate cancer in the general population: one fifth of men of European ancestry with prostate cancer carry at least one copy of the newly discovered variant, which confers an approximately 60 per cent increase in risk of the disease and accounts for approximately eight per cent of all cases.
The milestone in understanding, diagnosing and treating the cancer, which is rising in incidence with over 30,100 new cases a year in Britain, was announced yesterday in the journal Nature Genetics by a team at Decode genetics, a biopharmaceutical company, with academic colleagues in Iceland, the United States and Sweden.
"This is one of the first genetic variants ever found to confer significant risk of a major cancer among the population in general," said Dr Kari Stefansson, chief executive of Decode genetics and senior author on the study.
This variant also appears to be associated with the development of more aggressive prostate tumours, suggesting that it specifically increases the risk of malignant disease.
A diagnostic test for the variant may enable doctors to make more informed decisions as to how closely they should monitor those who are at high risk, and how aggressively they should treat the disease once it presents.
"We plan to use this discovery as the basis for the development of such a diagnostic test," said Dr Stefansson.
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