Scientists identify gene that can raise prostate cancer risk

MALCOLM RITTER / AP 31jan01

For the first time, scientists have apparently tracked down a gene that makes some families prone to developing prostate cancer. In the general population, the gene appears to roughly double the risk of the disease.

Overall, it may play a role in 2 percent to 5 percent of prostate cancer cases, researchers estimated.

Eventually, once scientists have identified more genes that make men susceptible to the disease, they could be combined into a test to identify men at high risk, said researcher Lisa Cannon-Albright.

Such men could be followed especially closely for early signs of the disease, so it can be caught when it is still in a more treatable form, said Cannon-Albright, of the University of Utah School of Medicine.

One expert called the new finding a breakthrough but cautioned it will take more work to see how big a role the gene plays in the disease.

Scientists have already implicated a few known genes in prostate cancer risk, and there appear to be at least a half-dozen more. But the new work is the first to start with families with a strong inherited predisposition to the disease and to identify the responsible gene.

Some 198,100 American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, and the disease will kill an estimated 31,500. Most cases appear to come from a genetic vulnerability plus some largely unknown environmental factors.

Most cases appear outside of the cancer-prone families. Nobody knows how many genes can raise a man's susceptibility, though it appears that no single gene plays a big role in most prostate cancer cases.

The newly found gene, called ELAC2, is reported in the February issue of the journal Nature Genetics by Cannon-Albright, scientists at Myriad Genetics Inc. of Salt Lake City, and others.

Researchers found evidence that a mutated version of the gene raised prostate cancer risk in two of 33 families that showed an inherited predisposition.

Other analysis suggested that certain variants of the gene may promote the disease in the general population as well, Cannon-Albright said. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania reported recently that two variants of the gene may roughly double the risk of prostate cancer.

Cannon-Albright said it is not clear yet how certain versions of ELAC2 raise prostate cancer risk.

William Isaacs, a urology professor at Johns Hopkins University who is looking for prostate cancer genes, said the ELAC2 work has ``created tremendous excitement in our field. ... There's no question it's a breakthrough.''

It will take more work to show how common the disease-promoting versions of the gene are, and just how much they add to a man's risk of prostate cancer, he said.