A complex interplay between three different genes may determine how prostate cancer will progress, a new mouse study finds.Genetics clearly plays a role in prostate cancer, but researchers are still working to clarify that role. Studies have shown that from 5 percent to 10 percent of prostate cancers are hereditary; the risk is doubled or tripled for a man with a brother or father who has had the malignancy, and genetic mechanisms are estimated to be responsible for half of the early-onset cases, those that occur before the age of 55.Studies have also identified six separate genes that appear to be involved in prostate cancer. Researchers at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey have been working with mice genetically engineered to have lack two of them -- NKX3, a prostate-specific gene; and PTEN, which acts to suppress the growth of tumors.Their latest research, reported in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences adds a third gene to the mix -- p27kip1 -- which acts to suppress tumors. Below-normal function of p27kip1 is associated with a poor outcome for human prostate cancer patients.
