Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy in the United States.  According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), more than 200,000 patients will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2003, and approximately 15% of these patients will die from it. Scientists have been trying to identify the risk factors of prostate cancer for more than 50 years.  According to a major review of medical literature recently published in the April, 2003 issue of Cancer (the ACS’ medical journal), men with a first degree relative with prostate cancer may be more than twice as likely to develop this malignancy than men with no family history.  This result confirmed the importance of prostate cancer screening in men with a strong family history.

The first research evaluating the risk of prostate cancer for men with a positive family history was published more than 40 years ago.  Since then, more and more clinical data has pointed to family history being a significant risk factor for prostate cancer.  Recently, researchers from the New York University School of Medicine in the United States and Maastricht University in the Netherlands reviewed 33 available medical articles on this topic and summarized their finding in a review paper. They found that the risk of developing prostate cancer was 3.37 times greater for patients with a brother with the disease, and 2.17 times greater for patients whose father had the diagnosis, than men with no family history of prostate cancer.  Risk of the malignancy also increased as the number of affected family members increased and as their ages decreased.  In addition, the risk was also increased for men with a second-degree male relative with prostate cancer, but the risk was not as high as those with a first-degree relative with the disease.

These findings were consistent with trials from different years and countries. “Epidemiologic studies to date have revealed no other risk factor that is as consistently and strongly associated with the development of prostate carcinoma as a positive family history,” according the researchers.

Screening of prostate cancer with PSA (prostate specific antigen) tests may help to diagnose the disease in its early stage. However, whether prostate cancer screening will improve treatment outcome is questionable.  According to one research trial, early detection of prostate cancer could lead to better survival rates.  While screening the general male population for prostate cancer is still controversial in many countries, the researchers concluded that men with a strong family history of prostate cancer constitute an easily identifiable high-risk group that could benefit from PSA screening at an earlier age and at shorter intervals compared with the general male population.

For more information about Prostate Cancer, please visit the Prostate Cancer Directory of the Cancer information Network.