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Newsletter

August 2006 Issue:

• From the Director
• New PCGP On-Line Health Update Survey
• Advancing Technologies for Genetic Research
• Hats off to you!
• Discordant Sibling Pair Project
• More Information

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From the Director

Since our last newsletter in the Spring of 2004, we remain hard at work in Ann Arbor searching for prostate cancer genes. In addition, we have made important contributions to the international effort toward finding prostate cancer genes through our participation in the International Consortium for Prostate Cancer Genetics or ICPCG. This collaboration has been an enormous benefit because we can gain increased statistical power by pooling DNA samples collected from prostate cancer families throughout the world.

The ICPCG began in the mid 1990s, when a number of investigators began meeting informally to share their scientific discoveries about hereditary prostate cancer. Over the years, this group has become more structured and now has members from throughout the United States as well as Europe and Australia. The ICPCG received a multimillion dollar award from the National Cancer Institute in September of 2002 to support collaborative hereditary prostate cancer research. In the four years that we have been funded, we have made some important discoveries while also making many new friends from throughout the world. Let me highlight some of our important scientific discoveries:

1. Analysis of the candidate region at 1q24-25 in 772 prostate cancer families (Am J Hum Genet, 66(3): 945-957, 2000).
2. Analysis of the the candidate region at 20q13 in 1,234 prostate cancer families (Prostate, 63(3): 276-290, 2005).
3. Completion of a combined genome-wide linkage scan for prostate cancer susceptibility genes in 1,233 families (Am J Hum Genet, 77(2): 219-229, 2005).
4. Completion of a combined genome-wide linkage scan for aggressive prostate cancer.

We have also submitted a competitive renewal of our grant to the National Cancer Institute. While we await word about continued funding, we will be submitting DNA samples from an additional, recently collected set of prostate cancer families to the Center for Inherited Disease Research (CIDR) for a new genome wide scan using a dense panel of markers.

The University of Michigan Prostate Cancer Genetics Project was fortunate to host the Spring 2004 Meeting of the ICPCG in Ann Arbor. The meetings were held at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Visitors had a terrific time enjoying the spring weather on campus as well as dinner at my house. Since then, the group has met in Los Angeles (hosted by the University of Southern California), Snowbird Resort in Park City, Utah (hosted by the University of Utah), London, England (hosted by The Royal Marsden) and the Camelback Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona (hosted by Translational Genomics Research Institute or TGen). We will plan to keep you updated on the progress of the ICPCG in coming newsletters.

Kathleen A. Cooney, M.D.
Project Director
University of Michigan PCGP

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Welcome is published by the Prostate Cancer Genetics Project

7310 CCGC, 1500 East Medical Center Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0946
Phone: 734-936-2031 or 800-723-9170
Fax: 734-647-4338

Articles by:
Caroline Mohai, Alicia M. Mastronardi, Bronwen A. Halstead-Nussloch, Kimberly A. Zuhlke, Jennifer Beebe-Dimmer, MPH, PhD, Kathleen A. Cooney, MD

Special thanks to: Lisa Robbins

Editor: Caroline E. Mohai

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University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center
1500 East Medical Center Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

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