ANAHEIM, California (Reuters Health) - Caucasian Americans who inherit mitochondrial DNA haplotype U are predisposed to the development of both prostate and renal carcinoma, according to research presented Tuesday at the 96th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
“Individuals in the U haplogroup are a high-risk group for prostate and renal cancer and therefore they should probably be screened more aggressively for these tumors and at an earlier age,” Dr. John A. Petros, who presented his team’s work, told Reuters Health.
In the study, Dr. Petros and colleagues compared mitochondrial DNA haplotype in 221 patients with prostate cancer, 121 with renal cancer, and 246 cancer-free controls. They observed that the U haplotype was significantly over expressed in both prostate and renal cancer patients compared with controls (16.7% and 20.7% vs 9.6%).
“Interestingly,” Dr. Petros said, “when you look at the literature on the co-existence of these two tumors it’s really quiet dramatic in that patients who have renal cell carcinoma are predisposed to developing prostate cancer and vice versa.” There is a “familial risk as well, in particular, in maternally linked relatives, which is relevant because all of the mitochondria comes from the mother.”
Dr. Petros and colleagues also have evidence that inheriting missense mutations of the mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase subunit I (COI) gene predisposes to the development of prostate cancer.
Mitochondrial gene sequencing studies performed in 260 prostate cancer patients and 54 cancer-free controls revealed missense mutations in the COI gene in 12% of cancer patients compared with less than 2% of cancer-free controls.
Dr. Petros noted that mitochondrial genotyping, which can be done very easily with a simple blood test,” has the potential to identify over 20 million Americans at increased risk for developing prostate and renal cancer.
“At this time, the only recognized high-risk groups for prostate cancer are those with a family history and African Americans. We would predict that individuals with mitochondrial haplotype U may be a high enough risk group that it may be prudent to screen them for prostate and renal cancer.”
MeSH Headings:Congresses: DNA, Mitochondrial: Health Care Economics and Organizations: Organizations: Health CareCopyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
