Monday, May 08, 2006

Genetic Marker May indicate Prostate Cancer Risk

From Associated Press:
NEW YORK - Scientists have identified a common genetic marker that signals a 60 percent heightened risk of prostate cancer in men who carry it, and it may help explain why black men are unusually prone to the disease, a new study says.

The DNA variant may play a role in about 8 percent of prostate cancers in men of European extraction and 16 percent of the cancers in blacks, researchers said.

The study was published online Sunday by Nature Genetics and will appear in the journal's June issue. The work is reported by Kari Stefansson and colleagues at deCode genetics in Reykjavik, Iceland, and scientists elsewhere.

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