Ten new genetic clues for prostate cancer

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — Gene sleuths have identified more than 10 new genetic links to prostate cancer, two of which would be included in a new diagnostic test aimed at spotting men at risk from this disease.

Prostate cancer is the commonest cancer afflicting men in developed countries and heredity is known to play a key but poorly understood role in it.

Working separately, scientists gathered in three international consortia crunched through genetic data garnered from blood samples provided by thousands of volunteers.

Men with prostate cancer had a strong tendency to have telltale variants in locations on chromosomes 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11 and 19 and the X chromosome for gender, they reported in the latest issue of Nature Genetics.

One of the group of...