DNA Repair and Ethnic Differences in Prostate Cancer Risk
Abstract
Prostate cancer is the most common lethal tumor among US males and is particularly high in African Americans. This study evaluates DNA repair in a study of 240 prostate cancer patients and 240 healthy controls matched on age and race in a 50% African American population. Low DNA repair correlates with increased risk of certain cancers but prostate cancer was not yet examined. We hypothesize that low DNA repair, especially in African American men, contributes to increased risk of having prostate cancer. To evaluate this hypothesis, we quantify DNA repair capacity in blood cells using comet assay and evaluate how this repair capacity is related to genetic variants in OGG1 and XRCC1 DNA repair genes. Genetic variants of OGG1 and XRCC1 with a decreased DNA repair capacity were previously identified. This means that a portion of the general population carrying the 'at risk' variant might be at higher risk of developing prostate cancer. This pilot study is expected to fill important gaps in our understanding of prostate cancer etiology, produce new hypotheses which can be tested in an expanded prostate cancer study, focus prostate cancer prevention in a new direction, and help design better cancer prevention and treatment strategies.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA458279
Entities
People
- Radoslav Goldman
Organizations
- Georgetown University