Prostate Cancer Predisposition Profiled in Chinese Patients

In PLOS Genetics, researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Fudan University characterize germline prostate cancer contributors in Han Chinese individuals diagnosed with the disease. With exome sequencing data, the team tracked down three dozen deleterious germline variants in 29 of the 100 patients profiled, affecting 25 genes falling in DNA damage repair (DDR), DNA methylation, and other pathways. When they attempted to confirm those findings in another 167 prostate cancer patients from Shanghai, they narrowed in on seven genes containing risky germline variants in both cohorts, while comparisons with germline sequences from cancer-free individuals from East Asia pointed to a dozen genes beyond of DDR mechanisms implicated in prostate cancer risk in the past. "Taken together," they write, "this study reveals a comprehensive germline mutation landscape in Chinese prostate cancer patients and discovers 12 novel non-DDR predisposition genes to lay the groundwork for the optimization of genetic screening."