A genomic scan of families with prostate cancer identifies multiple regions of interest

A 10-cM genomewide scan of 94 families with hereditary prostate cancer, including 432 affected men, was used to identify regions of putative prostate cancer-susceptibility loci. There was an average of 3.6 affected, genotyped men per family, and an overall mean age at diagnosis of 65.4 years. A total of 50 families were classified as early onset (mean age at diagnosis < 66 years), and 44 families were classified as later onset (mean age at diagnosis ≥ 66 years). When the entire data set is considered, regions of interest (LOD score ≥ 1.5) were identified on chromosomes 10, 12, and 14, with a dominant model of inheritance. Under a recessive model LOD scores ≥ 1.5 were found on chromosomes 1, 8, 10, and 16. Stratification by age at diagnosis highlighted a putative susceptibility locus on chromosome 11, among the later-onset families, with a LOD score of 3.02 (recombination fraction 0) at marker ATA34E08. Overall, this genomic scan suggests that there are multiple prostate cancer loci responsible for the hereditary form of this common and complex disease and that stratification by a variety of factors will be required for identification of all relevant genes.