Home > Prevention & Risk Assessment > Genetics > Prostate Cancer Genetics Project > Spring, 2004 Newsletter

Candidate Genes for Prostate Cancer: BRCA1

There is a gene on chromosome 17 called BRCA1 or breast cancer 1. Mutations in this gene have been associated with breast and ovarian cancer in women and breast and prostate cancer in men (see above). Our research team recently studied the BRCA1 gene for mutations in collaboration with Dr. Elaine Ostrander at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA. We selected 93 PCGP participants for this study based on prior genetic linkage data, and we screened the entire BRCA1 gene for mutations. Although we identified over 20 variants, most of these do not result in an important change in the gene and probably represent normal human variation. Thus, mutations in the BRCA1 gene are unlikely to be a major cause of hereditary prostate cancer.

However, we did identify a BRCA1 mutation that causes an abnormal protein, and this family had a history of both ovarian and prostate cancer. Thus, men with prostate cancer who also have one or more close relatives with ovarian cancer and/or breast cancer diagnosed before the age of 50 may want to visit a cancer genetics clinic for counseling and consideration of genetic testing. For more information, please contact our Cancer Genetics Clinic in the University of Michigan Health System at 734-647-8906.

See Also:

• Make a Donation to the Prostate Cancer Genetics Project
• Urologic Cancers
• UMCCC Clinical Trials

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