Genetic Risk Factors for Prostate Cancer

Genetic Risk Factors for Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer that occurs in men is the formation of a tumor on the prostate gland. Cancer is formed on the walnut-shaped gland that helps nourishment of sperm formation. Its symptoms include urinary incontinence, blood passed through urine, immense pain or bone fracture.

Age is a commonly known risk factor; as men get older, their chances of getting prostate cancer are higher. In the country, every 13 out of 100 men get prostate cancer, and around 0.8% of them die. Some people of particular race like Afro American are at higher risk of developing prostate cancer or men with a family history of the same. Let us look at the top risk factors for prostate cancer:

North American or North European race
Prostate cancer is mostly seen in North American and Northern Europe side. Nowadays research also found that it is slowly been seen among the Asians as well especially in urban locations like Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. Men with a stunted lifestyle like poor eating habits, less physical exercise and those who use a lot of chemicals on their body are more likely to get prostate cancer.

Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer or HBOC syndrome
This is one of the top risk factors for prostate cancer and is linked to DNA repair mutations, especially the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes. This is mostly seen in women but some men also do have an increased risk of breast cancer and in turn leading to prostate cancer. Men with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations are advised to check for prostate cancer symptoms through different types of testing. If you have a family history of HBOC syndrome then it’s more likely you might get too.

Family History
Familial prostate is well known to bring about 20% of chances to the offsprings as well. They are a combination of genes that are shared and these combine with lifestyle factors that bring about 80% chances to offsprings men to procure prostate cancer in future. When prostate cancer is inherited from a close relative like a maternal uncle, grandfather, or paternal grandfather. There are 40% chances according to American society to receive the same genes passed down to one generation below. For example, if three or more first cousins have had prostate cancer, you can inherit the same mutations when the same side of your family has had three generations of men with prostate cancer. The risk of developing prostate cancer for such people are likely like 3 times higher than the average maternal side hereditary.

Other Genetic Factors
The other gene mutations that could be risk factors to prostate cancer are HPC1, HPC2, CAPB, ATM, FANCA, HOXB13 and a mix of these genes together in the same body can lead to prostate cancer. Currently, research has been conducted on genetic mutations and how to identify these genes through genetic testing in order to help a man who is likely to develop prostate cancer in the future.