Is Prostate Cancer Inherited Genetically?

Illustration of prostate cancer and genetic, credit to Invitae

There are many factors that believed to increase the risk to get prostate cancer; some of them are genetics, diet, age, race, lifestyle, obesity and Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). 

From genetic view point, prostate cancer is highly heritable; the inherited risk of prostate cancer has been estimated to be as high as 60%. 

Men diagnosed with prostate cancer are highly probably coming from close relative (a father or a brother) with prostate cancers. 

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (2016) suggested that a man with one close relative with prostate cancer is twice as likely to develop cancer.

Then, If two close male relatives are affected, the risk of developing prostate cancer is increased five-fold compared to man with no family members diagnosed.

There are several hundred genes implicate to different stages of Prostate Cancer. 

Maqungo et al, (2011) informed that South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape has developed database called as Dragon Database of Genes associated with Prostate Cancer (DDPC). 

Data were collected from sources of around the world. Some of genes connected to prostate cancers are BRCA1, BRCA2, and HOXB13. 

If these genes have mutated due to un-known reasons, men will have a higher risk of developing prostate cancer and, in some cases, other cancers during their lifetimes.

References

Maqungo, M., Kaur, M., Kwofie, SK., Radovanovic, A., Schaefer, U., Schmeier, S., Oppon, E., Christoffels, A., and Bajic, VB. 2011. DDPC: Dragon Database of Genes associated with Prostate Cancer. Nucleic Acids Res. 2011 Jan; 39(Database issue): D980–D985. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3013759/

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. 2016. Inherited Risk for Prostate Cancer. Retrieved from https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/risk-assessment-screening/hereditary-genetics/genetic-counseling/inherited-risk-prostate