Prostate Cancer Risk Assessment Program - A model for the early detection of prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer (except skirt cancer) ill men. Several factors have been associated with an increased risk for prost ate cancer, including age, ethnicity, family history, lifestyle, and enviro nmental exposures. Recognition of the importance of the interaction of thes e factors in prostate cancer has led to all interest in their evaluation as a model both for studying genetic susceptibility patterns and for studying and providing educational tools and preventive interventions, One such mod el has been developed at Fox Chase Cancer Center, Critical to the implement ation of the model has been the establishment of the Prostate Cancer Risk R egistry (PCRR) and Prostate Cancer Risk Assessment Program (PRAP), Together , they serve as a unique resource for investigating the interaction between environmental factors and genetic susceptibility patterns; exploring the e arly, premalignant biological markers of prostate cancer and prospectively assessing the quality of life (QOL) of men at risk. lit addition, FRAP faci litates the evaluation of models for prostate cancer risk counseling and sc reening in the community, This paper describes this model for early detecti on and risk reduction, along with preliminary data from its first two study aims, The program is particularly relevant in view of the wealth of geneti c information emerging from the Human Genome Project.