Gene Deletion Doubles Prostate Cancer Risk

CHEK2 gene involved in DNA damage response

TUESDAY, Oct. 31 (HealthDay News) -- Men who have a large deletion in a gene involved in the response to DNA damage have nearly double the risk of developing prostate cancer as men who do not, according to a report published online Oct. 31 in the Journal of Medical Genetics.

Cezary Cybulski, Ph.D., of Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, Poland, and colleagues assessed 1,864 Polish men with prostate cancer and 5,496 men from the general population. The researchers assessed the subjects for a germline mutation that included a large deletion of exons 9 and 10 in the CHEK2 kinase gene.

Overall, 0.4 percent of controls and 0.8 percent of patients had the deletion (odds ratio 1.9). The deletion was also found in 4 of 249 men with familial prostate cancer, according to the study.

"A large deletion of exons 9 and 10 of CHEK2 confers an increased risk of prostate cancer in Polish men," Cybulski and colleagues conclude. The deletion "might be present in other Slavic populations, including Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Baltic and Balkan countries."

Abstract
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