Confirmation of linkage of prostate cancer aggressiveness with chromosome 19q

Regions on chromosomes 7 and 19 were recently reported to contain susceptibility loci that regulate tumor aggressiveness of prostate cancer. To confirm these findings, we analyzed genome scan data from 161 pedigrees affected with prostate cancer. Using the Gleason score as a quantitative measure of tumor aggressiveness, we regressed the squared trait difference, as well as the mean-corrected cross product, on the estimated proportion of alleles shared identical-by-descent at each marker position. Our results confirm the previous linkage results for chromosome 19q (D19S902, P<.00001). In addition, we report suggestive evidence for linkage on chromosome 4 (D4S403, P=.00012). The results of previous findings, together with our results, provide strong evidence that chromosome 19 harbors a gene for tumor aggressiveness.