Prostate Princess

Prostate Cancer Linked to BRCA2 Breast Cancer Gene

It has been my personal belief that prostate, breast, ovarian and cervical cancers are all related due to the fact that they are cancers of the reproductive system in human beings. In a report issued by the Clinical Cancer Research center in which the correlation between the BRCA2 gene mutation and these types of cancers were studied. This report came out of Sydney, Australia in which it was found that:

A mutated gene seen as a factor in breast cancer can also expose men to a four times higher risk of prostate cancer, the scientists said, describing confirmation of the link as a world first.

The research was funded by Australia’s National Breast Cancer Foundation and carried out by researchers at kConFab, an Australian and New Zealand consortium for research into
familial breast cancer. The consortium has been investigating families with multiple cases of breast and ovarian cancer for 10 years and noticed that prostate cancer was also common in some of the families, said kConFab national manager Heather Thorne.

Those families carried a mutation in the BRCA2 gene, which is passed from one generation to the next, and “this led us to explore whether these prostate cancers were caused by the genetic fault running in the family,” she said.

“We discovered that a man with a genetic fault in BRCA2 has almost four times the risk of developing prostate cancer than men in the general population. The BRCA2-prostate cancers that arise in these men also tend to be more aggressive”. It was hoped the discovery would lead men to assess their personal risk in the same way women already do with breast and ovarian cancer, Thorne said in a statement.

“If a man comes from a family with multiple cases of breast or ovarian cancer, or knows there is a BRCA2 gene mutation running in their family, they may be at increased risk of developing prostate cancer.”

“Breast cancer survivors who find they have a mutation in the BRCA2 gene will also now know that their brothers or sons could be at increased risk of prostate cancer”, she said.

In addition to the advancement in finding biomarkers, etc. it is my hope that this will facilitate the combining of research funding as well as a cross-reference of therapies to treat cancer of the reproductive system for men and women.

This is the direction I would like to see future research and funding take, a sharing of resources, findings and funding. Until next time…

Karen

Prostate Princess