Researches have identified seven genetic risk factors that account for half of the prostate cancers and hope to make a test available to determine risk factor within a year.

Prostate cancer is strongly associated with increasing age, with 60 per cent of cases occurring in men over the age of 70. But there are also strong genetic factors, with the risk increasing in men whose fathers developed the disease.

Much of the research focus in recent years has been on a region of chromosome 8 - one of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes - which appears to be instrumental in conferring a high risk of inheriting a predisposition to prostate cancer.

“There is a fairly large genetic component to the risk. That means you don’t inherit the disease, you inherit various dispositions to the disease,” said Kari Stefansson, the head of the Icelandic company deCode Genetics which formed part of the research team.

Those without the predisposition and other risk factors maybe able to avoid having to undergo prostate exams. More research is required and the test would have to undergo the FDA approval process but these developments are encouraging.

[DNA test will detect prostate cancer risk]

[tags]DNA, prostate cancer, cancer, health[/tags]