Researchers report that a set of genetic variations in at least four regions of DNA strongly predicts prostate cancer risk and that these variations may be responsible for a large number of prostate cancer cases in white men in the United States. The research was conducted by investigators from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and their partners in the Cancer Genetic Markers of Susceptibility (CGEMS) initiative. CGEMS researchers are scanning the entire human genome to identify common, inherited gene variations that increase the risks for breast and prostate cancers. The latest results of this research appeared online February 10, 2008 (and will appear in print March 1, 2008), in Nature Genetics, while initial results appeared in the May 1, 2007 issue of the same journal.
