Interim Results from the IMPACT Study: Evidence for Prostate-specific Antigen Screening in BRCA2 Mutation Carriers.

Background: Mutations in BRCA2 cause a higher risk of early-onset aggressive prostate cancer (PrCa). The IMPACT study is evaluating targeted PrCa screening using prostate-specific-antigen (PSA) in men with germline BRCA1/2 mutations.

Objective: To report the utility of PSA screening, PrCa incidence, positive predictive value of PSA, biopsy, and tumour characteristics after 3 yr of screening, by BRCA status.

Prostate-specific antigen velocity in a prospective prostate cancer screening study of men with genetic predisposition.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/bjc.2017.

Prostate-specific antigen velocity in a prospective prostate cancer screening study of men with genetic predisposition.

Background: Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and PSA-velocity (PSAV) have been used to identify men at risk of prostate cancer (PrCa). The IMPACT study is evaluating PSA screening in men with a known genetic predisposition to PrCa due to BRCA1/2 mutations. This analysis evaluates the utility of PSA and PSAV for identifying PrCa and high-grade disease in this cohort.

Ambiguity in a masculine world: Being a BRCA1/2 mutation carrier and a man with prostate cancer.

Objective: Increased risk of prostate cancer (PCa) is observed in men with BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations. Sex and gender are key determinants of health and disease although unequal care exists between the sexes. Stereotypical male attitudes are shown to lead to poor health outcomes.

The psychological impact of undergoing genetic-risk profiling in men with a family history of prostate cancer.

Background: The ability to identify men at genetically high-risk of prostate cancer (PrCa) would enable screening to be targeted at those most in need. This study explored the psychological impact (in terms of general and PrCa-specific worry and risk perceptions) on men with a family history of PrCa, undergoing prostate screening and genetic-risk profiling, within a research study.

Methods: A prospective exploratory approach was adopted, incorporating a sequential mixed-method design.

"It's all very well reading the letters in the genome, but it's a long way to being able to write": Men's interpretations of undergoing genetic profiling to determine future risk of prostate cancer.

A family history of prostate cancer (PC) is one of the main risk factors for the disease. A number of common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that confer small but cumulatively substantial risks of PC have been identified, opening the possibility for the use of SNPs in PC risk stratification for targeted screening and prevention in the future. The objective of this study was to explore the psychosocial impact of receiving information about genetic risk of PC.

Targeted prostate cancer screening in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers: results from the initial screening round of the IMPACT study.

Background: Men with germline breast cancer 1, early onset (BRCA1) or breast cancer 2, early onset (BRCA2) gene mutations have a higher risk of developing prostate cancer (PCa) than noncarriers. IMPACT (Identification of Men with a genetic predisposition to ProstAte Cancer: Targeted screening in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers and controls) is an international consortium of 62 centres in 20 countries evaluating the use of targeted PCa screening in men with BRCA1/2 mutations.

Objective: To report the first year's screening results for all men at enrollment in the study.

Germline BRCA mutations are associated with higher risk of nodal involvement, distant metastasis, and poor survival outcomes in prostate cancer.

Purpose: To analyze the baseline clinicopathologic characteristics of prostate tumors with germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 (BRCA1/2) mutations and the prognostic value of those mutations on prostate cancer (PCa) outcomes.

Patients And Methods: This study analyzed the tumor features and outcomes of 2,019 patients with PCa (18 BRCA1 carriers, 61 BRCA2 carriers, and 1,940 noncarriers). The Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analysis were used to evaluate the associations between BRCA1/2 status and other PCa prognostic factors with overall survival (OS), cause-specific OS (CSS), CSS in localized PCa (CSS_M0), metastasis-free survival (MFS), and CSS from metastasis (CSS_M1).

Screening for ovarian cancer in women with varying levels of risk, using annual tests, results in high recall for repeat screening tests.

Background: We assessed ovarian cancer screening outcomes in women with a positive family history of ovarian cancer divided into a low-, moderate- or high-risk group for development of ovarian cancer.

Methods: 545 women with a positive family history of ovarian cancer referred to the Ovarian Screening Service at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London from January 2000- December 2008 were included. They were stratified into three risk-groups according to family history (high-, moderate- and low-risk) of developing ovarian cancer and offered annual serum CA 125 and transvaginal ultrasound screening.

A risk prediction algorithm based on family history and common genetic variants: application to prostate cancer with potential clinical impact.

Genome wide association studies have identified several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are independently associated with small increments in risk of prostate cancer, opening up the possibility for using such variants in risk prediction. Using segregation analysis of population-based samples of 4,390 families of prostate cancer patients from the UK and Australia, and assuming all familial aggregation has genetic causes, we previously found that the best model for the genetic susceptibility to prostate cancer was a mixed model of inheritance that included both a recessive major gene component and a polygenic component (P) that represents the effect of a large number of genetic variants each of small effect, where . Based on published studies of 26 SNPs that are currently known to be associated with prostate cancer, we have extended our model to incorporate these SNPs by decomposing the polygenic component into two parts: a polygenic component due to the known susceptibility SNPs, , and the residual polygenic component due to the postulated but as yet unknown genetic variants, .

Ownership of uncertainty: healthcare professionals counseling and treating women from hereditary breast and ovarian cancer families who receive an inconclusive BRCA1/2 genetic test result.

Aim: The aim of this study was to understand more fully how healthcare professionals deal with the uncertainty intrinsic in counseling and treating women from hereditary breast/ovarian cancer families who receive inconclusive BRCA1/2 genetic test results (genetic tests that do not find a mutation to account for the family history).

Methods: We conducted a small, qualitative, exploratory study using open-ended semistructured interviews of 12 geneticists, genetic counselor/nurses, oncologists, gynecologists, and breast surgeons at a major UK cancer center. We asked questions about how these professionals dealt with the large amount of uncertainty raised by an inconclusive result, how they communicated the uncertainty involved, their feelings about presenting medical management options based on information fraught with uncertainty, the role of the media, differences in perspectives by specialty, and personal feelings about the uncertainty.

Targeted prostate cancer screening in men with mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 detects aggressive prostate cancer: preliminary analysis of the results of the IMPACT study.

Objective: To evaluate the role of targeted prostate cancer screening in men with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, an international study, IMPACT (Identification of Men with a genetic predisposition to ProstAte Cancer: Targeted screening in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers and controls), was established. This is the first multicentre screening study targeted at men with a known genetic predisposition to prostate cancer. A preliminary analysis of the data is reported.

Prostate cancer in BRCA2 germline mutation carriers is associated with poorer prognosis.

Background: The germline BRCA2 mutation is associated with increased prostate cancer (PrCa) risk. We have assessed survival in young PrCa cases with a germline mutation in BRCA2 and investigated loss of heterozygosity at BRCA2 in their tumours.

Methods: Two cohorts were compared: one was a group with young-onset PrCa, tested for germline BRCA2 mutations (6 of 263 cases had a germline BRAC2 mutation), and the second was a validation set consisting of a clinical set from Manchester of known BRCA2 mutuation carriers (15 cases) with PrCa.

The carrier clinic: an evaluation of a novel clinic dedicated to the follow-up of BRCA1 and BRCA2 carriers--implications for oncogenetics practice.

Background: A novel oncogenetic clinic was established in 2002 at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust offering advice and specialist follow-up for families with a germline mutation in BRCA1 or BRCA2. The remit of this multidisciplinary clinic, staffed by individuals in both oncology and genetics, is to provide individualised screening recommendations, support in decision making, risk reducing strategies, cascade testing, and an extensive research portfolio.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed to evaluate uptake of genetic testing, risk reducing surgery and cancer prevalence in 346 BRCA1/BRCA2 families seen between January 1996 and December 2006.

Is no news good news? Inconclusive genetic test results in BRCA1 and BRCA2 from patients and professionals' perspectives.

Background: Women from families with a high risk of breast or ovarian cancer in which genetic testing for mutations in the BRCA1/2 genes is inconclusive are a vulnerable and understudied group. Furthermore, there are no studies of the professional specialists who treat them - geneticists, genetic counsellors/nurses, oncologists, gynaecologists and breast surgeons.

Methods: We conducted a small qualitative study that investigated women who had developed breast cancer under the age of 45 and who had an inconclusive BRCA1/2 genetic diagnostic test (where no mutations or unclassified variants were identified).

Identification of seven new prostate cancer susceptibility loci through a genome-wide association study.

Prostate cancer (PrCa) is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in males in developed countries. To identify common PrCa susceptibility alleles, we previously conducted a genome-wide association study in which 541,129 SNPs were genotyped in 1,854 PrCa cases with clinically detected disease and in 1,894 controls. We have now extended the study to evaluate promising associations in a second stage in which we genotyped 43,671 SNPs in 3,650 PrCa cases and 3,940 controls and in a third stage involving an additional 16,229 cases and 14,821 controls from 21 studies.

Multiple loci on 8q24 associated with prostate cancer susceptibility.

Previous studies have identified multiple loci on 8q24 associated with prostate cancer risk. We performed a comprehensive analysis of SNP associations across 8q24 by genotyping tag SNPs in 5,504 prostate cancer cases and 5,834 controls. We confirmed associations at three previously reported loci and identified additional loci in two other linkage disequilibrium blocks (rs1006908: per-allele OR = 0.

Unusual presentation of Lynch Syndrome.

Lynch Syndrome/HNPCC is a syndrome of cancer predisposition linked to inherited mutations of genes participating in post-replicative DNA mismatch repair (MMR). The spectrum of cancer associated with Lynch Syndrome includes tumours of the colorectum, endometrium, ovary, upper gastrointestinal tract and the urothelium although other cancers are rarely described. We describe a family of Lynch Syndrome with an hMLH1 mutation, that harbours an unusual tumour spectrum and its diagnostic and management challenges.

Prostate cancer segregation analyses using 4390 families from UK and Australian population-based studies.

Familial aggregation of prostate cancer is likely to be due to multiple susceptibility loci, perhaps acting in conjunction with shared lifestyle risk factors. Models that assume a single mode of inheritance may be unrealistic. We analyzed genetic models of susceptibility to prostate cancer using segregation analysis of occurrence in families ascertained through population-based series totaling 4390 incident cases.

The G67E mutation in hMLH1 is associated with an unusual presentation of Lynch syndrome.

Germline mutations in the mismatch repair (MMR) genes are associated with Lynch syndrome, also known as hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) syndrome. Here, we characterise a variant of hMLH1 that confers a loss-of-function MMR phenotype. The mutation changes the highly conserved Gly67 residue to a glutamate (G67E) and is reminiscent of the hMLH1-p.

Identification of new genetic risk factors for prostate cancer.

There is evidence that a substantial part of genetic predisposition to prostate cancer (PCa) may be due to lower penetrance genes which are found by genome-wide association studies. We have recently conducted such a study and seven new regions of the genome linked to PCa risk have been identified. Three of these loci contain candidate susceptibility genes: MSMB, LMTK2 and KLK2/3.

"BRCAness" syndrome in ovarian cancer: a case-control study describing the clinical features and outcome of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer associated with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations.

Purpose: We evaluated the clinical impact of germ-line BRCA1/2 mutations in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) on responses to first and subsequent lines of chemotherapy, treatment-free interval (TFI) between each line of therapy, and overall survival (OS).

Patients And Methods: Twenty-two EOC patients with germ-line BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations (BRCA-positive) were selected from our database and matched (1:2) with 44 nonhereditary EOC controls (defined by no associated personal history of breast cancer and no family history of breast and ovarian cancer or an uninformative BRCA mutation test) for stage, histologic subtype, age, and year of diagnosis. All patients received primary platinum-based chemotherapy.

Communicating genetics research results to families: problems arising when the patient participant is deceased.

Objectives: This study explores communication within families of clinically significant genetics research results, after the death of the patient participant. BRCA2 mutations were found in several men after their death from prostate cancer. Spouses were given the results in a genetic counselling session and asked to inform relatives.

Multiple loci with different cancer specificities within the 8q24 gene desert.

Recent studies based on genome-wide association, linkage, and admixture scan analysis have reported associations of various genetic variants in 8q24 with susceptibility to breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer. This locus lies within a 1.18-Mb region that contains no known genes but is bounded at its centromeric end by FAM84B and at its telomeric end by c-MYC, two candidate cancer susceptibility genes.