February 23, 2006

Common, inherited gene increases prostate cancer risk

By Elizabeth Crown

A common, inherited gene that predisposes one in eight people to development of certain forms of cancer, including breast, colon and ovarian cancers, has been found by Northwestern researchers to also increase prostate cancer risk — by 200 percent.

Boris Pasche, M.D., and colleagues at The Robert H. Lurie Cancer Center of Northwestern University have been screening for the gene, TGFBR1*6A, in individuals with a personal and family history of breast and ovarian cancers and in colon cancer.

Based on the recent findings in prostate cancer, the TGFBR1*6A cancer susceptibility gene study at Northwestern has been amended to include patients with a family history of prostate cancer.

Pasche is assistant professor of medicine, division of hematology/ oncology, at the Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Memorial Hospital and director of the cancer genetics program at the Cancer Center.

Pasche’s previous research showed that carriers of the TGFBR1*6A gene have a 38 percent higher risk for breast cancer, a 20 percent higher risk for colon cancer and a 41 percent higher risk for ovarian cancer.

Pasche also demonstrated that people with two copies of the gene (homozygotes) have a cancer risk that is twice as high as that in individuals with one copy of the gene (heterozygotes).

For example, women who carry two copies of the TGFBR1*6A gene have a 169 percent increased risk for breast cancer and women who carry one copy of the gene have a 23 increased risk for breast cancer.