A recent study appearing in Nature Genetics reports that 23 new risk sites are found in the process of analyzing over 10 million genetic markers in 80,000 men with prostate cancer. In addition to 76 identified previously, 100 Prostate Cancer Risk Loci are higher than other cancer ones identified.

In the largest-ever analysis of the cancer’s genetic biomarkers, scientists are looking for the combination effect of how 100 loci work together and how much they can explain the heritability of prostate cancer. What they have learnt is that one should rely on the total of the 100 Loci, rather than one gene , to predict risk.

Investigators find that the top 1% of men with these variants have a 5.7-fold relative risk compared with the population average, and only 10% of prostate cancers are the aggressive form.

The indications from the research are that these genetic variants explain 33% of the familial risk of the disease, and some risk variants are more common in different ethnic population. For instance, the aggressive form is prevalent in Africa and they find some risk genes specific to African populations.

Next research steps include the sample collections from 100,000 people with prostate cancer and  the larger- scale analysis using huge datasets. The goal of future research is to predict the aggressive form before it goes on to spread because even after the prostate is removed a few cells can go on to kill the person.

Reference:

A meta-analysis of 87,040 individuals identifies 23 new susceptibility loci for prostate cancer. Nature Genetics, 2014