Genetic susceptibility of prostate cancer: genome-wide screen of "non-aggressive" disease

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 believed to involve numerous genes and variable penetrance. It has been proposed that studying alternative, highly homogenous phenotypes related to CaP may be a solution for overcoming the apparent heterogeneity that has hindered the identification of susceptibility genes. Several recent studies have applied this idea to "aggressive" or "clinically significant" cases of CaP. Using the resources of the Utah Population Database, we identified two phenotypes often associated with non-aggressive disease that show significant familiality. We present those results here.