New study is hope for the day when scientists can predict the development of prostate cancer – while there is still no definitive way to tell, scientists are actively searching for the series of genes that will give insight to the progress of prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer can be either slow or aggressive, but there’s currently no way to tell which type of cancer the patient has at the early stage. Identifying aggressive prostate cancer early on makes it possible for the disease to be curable.  These genetic markers can help make the prediction early enough to treat the disease.

The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).  It included 4,849 men with aggressive prostate cancer and 12,205 with slowly forming prostate cancer.

A genetic issuer makes carriers up to 25 percent more likely to develop aggressive prostate cancer.

From the article:

Dr Helen Rippon, from The Prostate Cancer Charity, said: “Distinguishing between aggressive and slow growing forms of prostate cancer is probably the most significant challenge facing research into the disease today.

“However, this marker is not informative enough on its own to form the basis of a new, more reliable test – up to 30 per cent of men with a less aggressive cancer also carry it.

“Nevertheless, this study raises hopes that a panel of several genetic markers might one day be established that together can determine a man’s risk of developing aggressive prostate cancer.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6968488/First-gene-linked-to-aggressive-prostate-cancer-found.html