African men, as well their descendants, are more than twice as likely to die from prostate cancer because of their genetic makeup, two studies released this week show.
(Bloomberg) — African men, as well their descendants, are more than twice as likely to die from prostate cancer because of their genetic makeup, two studies released this week show.
The research, published in the journals Nature and Genome Medicine, found that the DNA of African men is more predisposed to the presence of so-called structural variation, putting them at increased risk of severe forms of the cancer.
This helps explain why a man in sub-Sharan Africa is 2.7 more times likely to die of prostate cancer than the global average and may be the first cancer genome resource of its kind to include African data, researchers from the University of Sydney and the University of Pretoria said.
“Our understanding of prostate cancer has been severely limited by a research focus on Western populations,” said Vanessa Hayes, a genomicist at the University of Sydney. This study has “significant implications for ancestral consideration when managing and treating prostate cancer.”
More than two million cancer-specific genomic variants were identified in 183 untreated prostate tumors from men living across Australia, Brazil and South Africa, according to the study.
“Through African inclusion, we have made the first steps not only toward globalizing precision medicine, but ultimately to reducing the impact of prostate cancer mortality across rural Africa,” said Riana Bornman, a professor at the University of Pretoria and clinical lead of the study in South Africa.
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