A simple blood test for aggressive forms of prostate cancer has moved a step closer with the discovery that a genetic marker is linked to the most serious forms of the disease.

The marker, called 8q24, lies on chromosome 8 and was originally discovered by deCODE, a genetics company that made a deal with the Government of Iceland to use health data from the closely knit Icelandic population to search for genes that cause common diseases.

Scientists from Northwestern University, in Chicago, reported yesterday at a meeting of the American Urological Association in Anaheim, California, that men who carry this marker have more aggressive tumours and are more likely to have had a close relative who will suffer prostate cancer.

Earlier work by deCODE and Northwestern has shown that about 15 per cent of Americans of European origin carry the marker, and 30 per cent of African-Americans. This work also showed that carrying the marker increased the risk of getting prostate cancer by 60 per cent.

The new research is important because tests for prostate cancer are poor. The PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) test has its uses, but cannot reliably differentiate prostate cancers that need treatment from those that can simply be monitored.

Many men may be unaware they have prostate cancer and die of something else. Slow-developing cancer are best left, with treatments focused on more aggressive cancers. So a test that could reliably identify dangerous cancers at an early stage would be invaluable.

The Northwestern study of 550 prostate cancer patients showed that those who carry the 8q24 marker have a 40 per cent chance of having a close family member with prostate cancer, whereas those who do not carry the marker have a 20 per cent chance.

“These findings will help us to understand the mechanisms underlying prostate cancer,” said Brian Helfand, assistant research professor of urology at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine and a co-principal investigator of the study. “They hold great promise for the development of new treatments and prevention.

“We found that the carriers of these 8q24 markers had more aggressive tumors,” he said. Patients who were carriers had cancers that were more likely to spread into the lymph nodes and were more difficult to remove surgically.

The patients in the study had been treated by Professor William Catalona. Professor Helfand said: “We have the best-detailed prostate cancer population to perform this study because Dr Catalona has a rich database and follow-up on all of his patients.”

Since the discovery of the 8q24 marker was published last year by deCODE, Professor Catalona, and two other research groups, the research has been confirmed by a number of other groups. This is the first time that a genetic mutation associated with prostate cancer has been found in a large segment of the population.

— A second study at the conference found an increased risk of recurrence of prostate cancer among US Army veterans who had been exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange, which contained dioxins, during the Vietnam War. Dr Martha Terris of the Veterans’ Affairs Medical Centre in Augusta, Georgia, found that men exposed to Agent Orange were more likely to have any cancer detected earlier, but were also more likely to suffer a recurrence after the tumour had been removed.

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