Results of a genome-wide linkage analysis in prostate cancer families ascertained through the ACTANE consortium.

Background: The aggregation of prostate cancer within families suggests a major inherited component to the disease. Genetic linkage studies have identified several chromosomal regions that may contain prostate cancer susceptibility loci, but none has been definitively implicated.

Methods: We performed a genome-wide linkage search based on 64 families, 63 with at least 3 cases of prostate cancer, ascertained in five countries.