Faulty gene linked to prostate cancer riskOctober 31, 2006A large germline deletion in the Chek2 kinase gene is associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer Online First J Med Genet 2006; doi: 10.1136/jmg.2006.044974 Missing sections of a gene, which programmes the manufacture of a chemical to alert the body to DNA damage, almost doubles the risk of prostate cancer, reveals research published ahead of print in the Journal of Medical Genetics. The researchers assessed almost 2,000 Polish men who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1999 and 2005 to see if they carried the CHEK2 kinase gene, or CHEK2 for short.
The findings were compared with those from almost 5,500 healthy people from the general population.. The same missing sections (exons 9 and 10) were found in 24 of the healthy people (0.4%) and in 15 of the men who had been diagnosed with the disease (0.8%). They also found this deletion in four out of 249 men with familial prostate cancer. Based on their findings, the authors calculated that this particular deletion almost doubled the risk of developing prostate cancer in general, and almost quadrupled it in men with a family history of the disease. The authors suggest that this deletion may also be relatively common among men from other parts of eastern Europe, including the Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, the Baltic states, and countries in the Balkans. And the findings prompt them to speculate whether the same deletion might not be carried by men elsewhere in the world. BMJ Specialty Journals | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Related Prostate Cancer News Articles Too much calcium in blood may increase risk of fatal prostate cancer Men who have too much calcium in their bloodstreams may have an increased risk of fatal prostate cancer, according to a new analysis from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the University of Wisconsin. Height linked to risk of prostate cancer development and progression A man's height is a modest marker for risk of prostate cancer development, but is more strongly linked to progression of the cancer, say British researchers who conducted their own study on the connection and also reviewed 58 published studies. Health risk behaviors associated with lower prostate specific antigen awareness According to a study conducted at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, health risk behaviors such as smoking and obesity are associated with lower awareness of the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA), which could lead to a lower likelihood of undergoing actual prostate cancer screening. Study shows PDE5 inhibitor more effective when used on demand in erectile dysfunction European Urology, the official journal of the European Association of Urology will be featuring the article 'Effect of nightly versus on-demand vardenafil on recovery of erectile function in men following bilateral nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy' by F. Montorsi et al.in the October issue, showing for the first time that vardenafil, a PDE5 inhibitor, is more efficacious when used on-demand in men with erectile dysfunction, supporting a shift towards on-demand dosing with PDE5 inhibitors in this patient group. Satisfaction and regret after radical prostatectomy procedures studied Studies have shown that approximately 16% of patients with localised prostate cancer regret their treatment choice. European Urology, the official journal of the European Association of Urology, will be publishing an article by J.W. Moul et al. comparing differences in satisfaction and regret between patients who underwent open retropubic radical prostatectomy and robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. State's first single incision robotic kidney removal For the first time in Michigan, a diseased kidney has been surgically removed at Henry Ford Hospital using highly sophisticated 3D robotics through a single incision. Anti-tumor effects are enhanced by inhibiting 2 pathways rather than 1 Two independent research groups have found that simultaneous inhibition of two signaling pathways resulted in substantially enhanced antitumor effects in mouse models of prostate and breast cancer. In an accompany commentary, Steven Grant, at Virginia Commonwealth University Health Science Center, Richmond, discusses the clinical importance of these studies and highlights some of the questions that still need to be answered. Why a common treatment for prostate cancer ultimately fails Some of the drugs given to many men during their fight against prostate cancer can actually spur some cancer cells to grow, researchers have found. The findings were published online this week in a pair of papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. PSA screening may be biased against obese men, leading to more aggressive cancers Testing men for elevated levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the blood -- the gold standard screening test for prostate cancer -- may be biased against obese men, whose PSA levels tend to be deceptively low. Study finds more PSA screening awareness needed among high-risk groups In one of the first examinations of PSA screening in younger men, a study published by researchers at Duke Medicine's Prostate Center finds that one-fifth of men under age 50 reported undergoing a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test to detect prostate cancer in the previous year, yet only one in three young black men reported ever having a PSA test in the previous year. More Prostate Cancer News Articles |
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