Could a Test Determine Your Risk of Prostate Cancer?

While prostate cancer can be so slow to develop in some men that it never affects their wellbeing at all, for others the health concern can be a real killer. Up to now, there is no way to identify those whose wellness is at a high risk of dying from the disease, but scientists believe they have come one step closer. This breakthrough, which comes from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, means that we could soon have genetic tests that can identify high-risk men with prostate cancer – enabling them to be monitored throughout their lives – and other men who can avoid unnecessary treatment.

 

Award-winning wellness writer Sarah Boseley explains, ‘In some men, prostate cancer is so slow-growing that it will not cause them any harm in their lifetime – they will die with it, rather than of it. But in others, it is aggressive and a killer. Because side-effects of treatment can include impotence and incontinence, it has long been recognised that there is a need for tests to establish which men are in real danger and which are not.’ The researchers screened men from families with a history of prostate cancer, and, as a result have established that 14 mutations in known cancer genes can predict life-threatening disease. The investigators, who published their findings in the British Journal of Cancer, also found that men with these mutations were likely to have more aggressive disease.

 

Study co-leader Ros Eeles, professor of oncogenics at the Institute of Cancer Research and honorary consultant at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, commented, ‘Our study shows the potential benefit of putting prostate cancer on a par with cancers such as breast cancer when it comes to genetic testing. Although ours was a small, first-stage study, we proved that testing for known cancer mutations can pick out men who are destined to have a more aggressive form of prostate cancer. We already have the technical capabilities to assess men for multiple mutations at once, so all that remains is for us to do further work to prove that picking up dangerous mutations early can save lives. If so, then in the future, genetic testing may be needed as part of the prostate cancer care pathway.’

 

As a result of these findings, doctors could screen men with prostate cancer in the family for their risk, much in the same way that doctors can now screen women for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which gives them a 50% chance of developing breast cancer. The 14 mutations which predict aggressive prostate cancer are in eight genes, which include BRCA1 and BRCA2. The others are ATM, CHEK2, BRIP1, MUTYH, PALB2 and PMS2. According to Dr Iain Frame, director of research at Prostate Cancer UK, ‘The minefield of prostate cancer diagnosis is one of the biggest hurdles facing treatment of the disease today. Current tests fail to differentiate between aggressive cancers that could go on to kill, and cancers that may never cause any harm.’

 

He continues, ‘This lack of clarity means that too often men and their doctors are left having to make incredibly difficult decisions on whether to treat the disease or not. We urgently need to understand more about which men are at risk of developing prostate cancer and in particular aggressive forms of the disease. Genetic testing to predict risk could revolutionise how we treat the 40,000 men diagnosed with the disease every year in the UK. These results are exciting as they add to the growing weight of evidence that men with a family history of prostate cancer who possess certain genes may be at higher risk, providing us with another crucial piece of the jigsaw.’

Categories: breast cancer, cancer, cancer research, Disease, genetic testing, high risk, prostate, prostate cancer, Research, risk, risk assessment

Fishy Findings: Omega-3"s May Increase Prostate Cancer Risk

Wellness enthusiasts always seem to be going on about omega-3 fatty acids. The anti-inflammatory properties of this compound, found naturally in oily fish, are widely believed to protect your well-being against heart attacks, strokes, arthritis and various cancers, but a new study has called the benefits of omega-3s into question.

 

A team from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle has reported that, if you’re a man with high levels of omega-3 in your blood, you’re 43% more likely to have prostate cancer, and 71% more likely to have aggressive “high-grade” tumors than those not taking supplements. In Britain alone, high street sales of omega-3 supplements are estimated to reach £116 million each year, making it one of the most popular supplements to take in this country.

 

For the study, which was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the researchers compared blood samples from 834 prostate cancer patient against 1,393 healthy controls. While the researchers were unclear as to why omega-3 supplements increased the risk of prostate cancer, they surmised that the effect could be related to how your body converts fatty acids into compounds that damage cells and DNA, and suppress the immune system. The researchers also didn’t look at how exactly omega-3 might affect your progression of prostate cancer, if you already have the disease. Still, according to Dr Alan Kristal, senior author of the paper, “We’ve shown once again that use of nutritional supplements may be harmful.”

 

Dr Iain Frame, Director of Research at Prostate Cancer UK commented, “Omega 3, such as is found in oily fish, has been the focus of a large amount of research in recent years, the majority of which points to it having wide ranging health benefits when eaten as part of a balanced diet. Therefore we would not encourage any man to change their diet as a result of this study, but to speak to their doctor if they have any concerns about prostate cancer.” Sarah Williams, health information officer at Cancer Research UK, added, “The evidence as to whether omega 3 fats affect prostate cancer risk is mixed and unfortunately this study doesn’t resolve the debate. Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers, and the risk increases as men get older.”

Categories: cancer research, Cancer Risk, fatty acids, oily fish, Omega-3, prostate cancer, Research

Researchers Make Remarkable Bone Cancer Discovery

cancer/">Bone cancer is a complicated problem with shocking statistics. Of those whose wellbeing is affected by cancer/">bone cancer, 20% die every year. In the UK alone, bone and connective tissue cancer killed more than a thousand people in 2008.

You could argue that where wellness experts were with cancer-female/">breast cancer in the 1990s is where they are with the treatment of cancer/">bone cancer today. The standard treatment is chondrosarcoma which is restricted to removal of the affected part as they are resistant to chemo and radiotherapy. However, with advances in scientific research, and the support of organisations like Cancer Research UK, The Wellcome Trust, and Macmillan Cancer Support, the fight against cancer/">bone cancer has gathered momentum in recent times, helping to dramatically improve survival rates.

In the 1970s, roughly 50% of women with cancer-female/">breast cancer survived the disease beyond five years, but now more than 80% do. The problem with cancer research is that studies into the rarer diseases, such as sarcoma, depend heavily on small charities such as Skeletal Action Cancer Trust, cancer/">Bone Cancer Research Trust and Sarcoma UK. A large portion of these charities’ funding comes from patients and their families and friends.

Researchers at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) have been working on a research project to understand more about cancer/">bone cancer. The investigators’ findings could soon allow them to develop specific treatments for hundreds of patients with one of the more common forms of the disease. 90 of the 400 cases of primary cancer/">bone cancer in the UK each year are chondrosarcomas, which is the second most common type of cancer/">bone cancer. This cancer of the cartilage has been discovered to contain an IDH1 or IDH2 mutation in 50-65% of cases.

As a result of this understanding, the RNOH experts can develop specific drugs which could change the way you’re treated for cancer/">bone cancer in the future. The benefits of this ground-breaking research was recently recognised, as the team were awarded the Jeremy Jass Prize for Research Excellence in Pathology. The team is now working with the pharmaceutical company Agios and they hope that clinical trials will begin in the near future.

Researchers Make Remarkable Bone Cancer Discovery

Categories: bone, Bone Cancer, breast cancer, cancer, cancer research, develop specific, Mutation, Research, trust

Do Men with BRCA2 Mutation Need Faster Cancer Treatment?

If you have prostate cancer and an inherited gene mutation, have the worst form of the disease. This is according to new research published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, which found that not only does the BRCA2 gene put your wellbeing at high risk of prostate cancer, but your wellness is also the most likely to be affected by aggressive tumours and poor survival rates.

Around one in every 100 men with prostate cancer will have the BRCA2 mutation, which is also linked to hereditary cancer-female/">breast cancer and ovarian cancer. For many, treatment is not immediately necessary as some men may live symptom-free for a lifetime, despite having this cancer. However, the study findings indicate that men with BRCA2 and prostate cancer should be treated early and aggressively because their tumour is more likely to spread.

For the study, researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research in London and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust examined the medical records of prostate cancer patients which included 61 men with BRCA2, 18 men with a similar gene mutation called BRCA1, and 1,940 men with neither mutation. The researchers discovered that men with BRCA2-mutations were more likely to have advanced disease at the time of diagnosis, and significantly less likely to survive their cancer. Men will the mutation lived an average of 6.5 years after diagnosis compared with 12.9 years for non-carriers.

‘It is clear from our study that prostate cancers linked to inheritance of the BRCA2 cancer gene are more deadly than other types,’ lead researcher Professor Ros Eeles said. ‘It must make sense to start offering affected men immediate surgery or radiotherapy, even for early-stage cases that would otherwise be classified as low-risk. We won’t be able to tell for certain that earlier treatment can benefit men with inherited cancer genes until we’ve tested it in a clinical trial, but the hope is that our study will ultimately save lives by directing treatment at those who most need it.’

Dr Julie Sharp of Cancer Research UK, commented, ‘This study shows that doctors need to consider treating men with prostate cancer and a faulty BRCA2 gene much sooner than they currently do, rather than waiting to see how the disease develops. We knew that men who inherit a faulty BRCA2 gene are at a greater risk of developing prostate cancer but this is the largest study to show that the faulty gene also makes the disease more likely to develop quickly and spread.’

Do Men with BRCA2 Mutation Need Faster Cancer Treatment?

Categories: brca2, brca2 gene, BRCA2 Mutation, cancer, cancer research, faulty brca2, gene mutation, prostate cancer, Research