HEREDITARY PROSTATE CANCER STUDY

The Johns Hopkins Department of Urology is actively recruiting families with familial prostate cancer and benign prostate enlargement in an effort to identify genetic determinants of these diseases. Clinical information of interest to physicians and patients is also included below.

The importance of asking about a family history of prostate cancer
The Department of Urology strongly encourages clinicians to take a family history of prostate cancer from each adult patient, as a positive family history markedly increases the risk of prostate cancer in first degree male relatives. For example, a patient with a father or brother with prostate cancer has two times the usual risk of developing prostate cancer. A man with both his father and brother affected with prostate cancer has almost a 50% chance of developing the disease. In addition, in such families prostate cancer occurs at an earlier age. At this time, our recommendation is that men with more than one first degree relative affected (father or brother) should be encouraged to undergo yearly digital rectal exam and yearly serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) beginning at age 40. We should add that annual serum PSA testing and annual digital rectal examination are recommended by the American Cancer Society for all men over age 50 whether or not they have a family history of prostate cancer.

We are currently performing linkage analysis in families with strong family histories of prostate cancer. We are particularly interested in families with five or more first degree relatives affected. If a patient is interested in learning more about our study, please call our answering machine: 410-955-0355, and and leave your name and phone number, and the name, phone number, and address of the patient. We will contact the patient by mail and provide them with information about the study. Alternatively, contact us by email: sisaacs@jhmi.edu