Genetics and Health

EphB2 Gene and Prostate Cancer in African-American Men

by Hsien Hsien Lei, PhD on September 23rd, 2005

The National Cooperative Study of Hereditary Prostate Cancer in African-Americans has yielded its first results. Researchers found that a mutation in the EphB2 gene is associated with an almost three-times greater risk of prostate cancer in African-American men with a strong family history of the disease.

The K1019X mutation in the EphB2 gene occurred with the following frequencies:

• 15 percent of African-American men with a strong family history of prostate cancer
• 5 percent of African-American men with no family or personal history of the disease
• Less than 2 percent of European-American men with no history of the disease

According to the National Human Genome Research Institute,

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among American men, causing more than 40,000 deaths annually. Although it can occur in men of all ages, it most often strikes those over the age of 65. Scientists are just beginning to study why prostate cancer is more prevalent in African-American men than in any other population, and are focusing closely on the role of inherited factors. For every 100,000 African-American men, for example, about 181 will have prostate cancer this year, 54 of whom will die from the disease.

Previously, the HPC-1 gene was associated with prostate cancer and accounted for at least one-third of familial prostate cancer.

Rick A. Kittles, a researcher with the Human Cancer Genetics program at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, said:

Next, we must learn more about how this mutation contributes to cancer, and we must screen for the mutation in a much larger group of African-American men with prostate cancer to verify its association with the disease.

eMaxHealth, September 20, 2005

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POSTED IN: Genetics of Disease