Genome-wide linkage analysis for aggressive prostate cancer in Utah high risk pedigrees

Research has consistently shown that genetics plays a critical role in prostate cancer (CaP) development, but the identification of CaP genes has proven to be very difficult. Hereditary prostate cancer is a complex disease involving numerous genes and variable phenotypic expression. This heterogeneity has led researchers to pursue genes associated with alternative phenotypes for CaP, such as tumor aggressiveness. Several recent linkage studies have used clinical and pathological data to define CaP aggressiveness as a qualitative trait. The International Consortium for Prostate Cancer Genetics (ICPCG) recently completed such an analysis using pooled data from 11 member institutions. This analysis required all families be small to moderate in size in order to facilitate standard linkage analysis software. Hence, although the ICPCG analysis included data from the Utah prostate cancer pedigree resource, the Utah pedigrees were not analyzed in their complete form. Specifically, pedigrees were divided and trimmed before analysis, which reduced the power of the analysis to detect predisposition loci. Here we present the results of a genome-wide scan for aggressive prostate cancer predisposition loci utilizing the full Utah pedigrees.