[Clinical and basic aspects of familial prostate cancer]

Hereditary and familial prostate cancers respectively account for about 5% and 20% of all prostate cancer in the United States. The most striking characteristic of familial prostate cancer is the early-onset of the disease. In the clinical setting, a family history of prostate cancer is recognized as a high risk for developing prostate cancer, and a risk-based prostate cancer screening program for it has been proposed. Genetic analyses for identifying the susceptible genes have been reported, and it appears that multiple genes are involved in the development of prostate cancer. Recently, genome-wide association studies showed that the single nucleotide polymorphisms located at the 8q24 region had an association with prostate cancer development. Familial prostate cancer, although its incident rate is relatively rare, must be treated as a high-risk group. Further clinical and basic research is warranted to explore the mechanism of prostate cancer development.