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U. Researchers Tracing Cancer's 'Relative Risk'

Posted on: Tuesday, 15 March 2005, 15:00 CST

A research group at the University of Utah has identified nine cancers that family members of prostate cancer patients have a higher risk of developing.

The group, led by Lisa Cannon-Albright, used a unique Utah genealogical database that linked family trees with medical histories to study the risk of cancer in immediate family members of men with prostate problems. The results probably will not surprise too many people, Cannon-Albright said, but will offer researchers a few more clues in searching for the genes responsible for family- linked prostate cancer.

"Many people who have a relative with cancer are already very aware that there are such things as cancer families," Cannon- Albright said. "They probably should be a little bit careful."

Doctors and researchers separate prostate cancer into heritable and nonheritable types. Heritable prostate cancer means that a close relative had the disease, and doctors often identify it by asking a patient's family history. Nonheritable prostate cancer means that no family member is known to have had the disease.

Immediate family members of men with nonheritable prostate cancer have a 20 to 30 percent greater chance of contracting kidney, thyroid, gall bladder, brain, lip, stomach and rectal cancers, as well as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and leukemia. That risk is in addition to the substantially higher risk of prostate cancer that men face if a close male relative has had the disease.

"If you're a male relative of a prostate cancer case, then most people say that you're about 2 1/2 times as likely as just the man on the street to have prostate cancer," Cannon-Albright said. "You should just make sure that you do all the things that are recommended for the average person down the street -- stay healthy, do your screening and stay out of the sun."

Relatives of men with heritable prostate cancer, however, had a significantly higher risk of other cancers. They had multiple myeloma, a blood and plasma cancer, 89 percent more often than normal, and they had kidney and rectal cancer 67 percent more often. They had colon cancer 53 percent more often than the average rate and had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and melanoma, or skin cancer, almost 50 percent more often.

The study "is hopefully going to help people realize that they really should be concerned about any cancer if their family has a cancer family history," Cannon-Albright said. "They should communicate that information" to their doctors.

The study, which was published in the online journal The Prostate, was an offshoot of the research Cannon-Albright's group is doing with genes that predispose men to prostate cancer. She said she will now continue to work on isolating the genes that cause prostate cancer, which have been particularly difficult for researchers to find.

E-mail: kswinyard@desnews.com

Source: Deseret News (Salt Lake City)

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