Researchers Find Familial Prostate Cancer Mutation

The first genetic mutation for prostate cancer risk in families with a strong hereditary predisposition has been found, researchers reported.

Men with prostate cancer were 20.1 times more likely than controls (P=8.5×10−7) to carry a mutation in HOXB13, which plays a key role in prostate development, Kathleen A. Cooney, MD, of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues found.

Co-author Patrick Walsh, MD, of Johns Hopkins, likened the newly discovered mutation to the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations found to account for a proportion of inherited risk of breast cancer.