Genetic predisposition to prostate cancer

Prostate cancer has been known to run in families for about 40 years and ep idemiological studies have demonstrated an increased risk to close relative s of cases. This risk rises markedly when the closeness and number of cases in a cluster increases. There has been considerable debate about the genet ic model, in particular whether there is a commoner lower penetrance (moder ately increased risk of the disease due to the gene(s)) in addition to cont ribution from high risk genes. For the first time, molecular results are st arting to emerge, indicating the location of high risk genes. These have sh own that there is evidence for more than one site of a high risk, gene two sites on chromosome 1 and one on chromosome X. These do not account for all clusters of prostate cancer cases and further genes remain to be discovere d. This article also outlines the contribution of the numerous collaborator s in the British Prostate Group to the UK Familial Prostate Cancer Study.