A risk factor is anything that may heighten your risk of developing cancer. One common risk factor for cancer cases across different types is a person’s genes. Fortunately, having a family history of cancer does not mean you will develop the condition, just that your susceptibility to it is higher. This article this tries to understand the relationship between genetics and prostate cancer.

Inheritance and risk
There has been documented evidence that states there is a genetic contribution to prostate cancer risk in a person. Thus, knowledge and awareness of molecular genetics are surging. Today, better clinical management, depending on the inherited pathogenic variants’ knowledge, is also being brought to the fore.

Some of the factors that are indicative of a genetic contribution to prostate cancer include:

1. More than one prostate cancer affected first-degree relatives
This also includes three successive generations with the instances of cancer either in the paternal or maternal lineage. So, it implies that if your brother or father has prostate cancer, then your risk (males) of developing prostate cancer almost doubles. The risk is higher for men who have a brother with prostate cancer than those with a father with prostate cancer. Further, the risk is amplified for men with multiple affected relatives, especially if they were still young during cancer diagnosis.

2. Family history of cancer
A history of prostate cancer in the family, along with the prevalence of other kinds of cancer, such as pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, or ovarian cancer

3. Early cancer diagnosis
Early-onset of cancer in the family, i.e., cancer was detected in other members before the age of fifty-five.

Gene changes
As stated, genetics and prostate cancer are interconnected. There are several chromosomal regions and genes, which are directly linked with prostate cancer in various studies. Pathogenic variants in genes, such as HOXB13, mismatch repair genes, BRCA1, and BRCA2, induce moderate to a modest lifetime risk of developing prostate cancer. Certain genes, such as BRCA2, have an emerging clinical relevance in the screening and treatment of cancer. Furthermore, Genome-wide Association Studies have established over one hundred and fifty SNVs related to the development of prostate cancer. However, as such, the clinical utility of such studies is still uncertain. There are ongoing studies to determine whether the combination of these SNVs tends to have clinical relevance in assessing individuals at a greater risk of developing prostate cancer. Moreover, studies to understand the relationship between aggressive disease and variants are also on.

However, it is vital to understand that though several inherited mutations heighten your risk of developing prostate cancer, these mutations account for only a tiny percentage of all cases.

In addition to inherited mutations of BRCA2 and BRCA1 gene (majorly associated with ovarian and breast cancer), Lynch syndrome, too, heightens the risk of prostate cancer in men.