Bad Gene Ups Prostate Cancer Risk in Black Men
WEDNESDAY, July 9 (HealthDayNews) -- A gene called macrophage scavenger receptor 1 (MSR1) plays an important role in the development of prostate cancer in black American men.
So says a study in the July 1 issue of Cancer Research.
The finding comes from a larger project called the Flint Men's Health Study, which is meant to identify prostate cancer risk factors in black American men.
"African-American men have the highest incidence of prostate cancer in the world. The severity is higher and they tend to die more quickly after diagnosis," study author Dr. Kathleen Cooney, an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, says in a statement.
"We don't know why this is, but part of the difficulty is that African-American men are underrepresented in most genetics studies," Cooney says.
This study included black men, aged 40 to 79, living in Flint, Mich. DNA samples were collected from 134 men diagnosed with prostate cancer and 340 men without the disease. After analyzing the DNA samples, the researchers concluded that rare germ-line MSR1 mutations were associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer.
Previous studies found the same association in white men.
"This study adds to an expanding body of evidence in support of germ-line MSR1 mutations as risk factors for prostate cancer. Although our study was modest in size, the public health burden of prostate cancer in the African-American community warrants further attention to potential genetic risk factors," lead author Dr. David Miller, a urology resident at the University of Michigan Medical School, says in a news release.
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SOURCE: University of Michigan, news release, July 2003
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