Expert Discusses Genetic Predisposition to Prostate Cancer in Racially Diverse Patient Populations

At the 2019 Prostate Cancer Consensus Conference, prostate cancer experts gathered along with genetic counseling experts to discuss the implementation of genetic testing for treating patients with inherited prostate cancer.

During one of the presentations Curtis A. Pettaway, MD, presented on germline predisposition in males from racially diverse populations. Highlighting the importance of more research needed to be down in these populations to understand how to prevent and treat their illness better.

Pettaway, a professor of medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, had the chance to sit down with OncLive^®, a sister publication to Oncology Nursing News^®, and discuss genetic testing recommendations in patients from racially diverse populations.

TRANSCRIPTION

You know, there are testing recommendations now, certainly through the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and men are being referred for testing, specifically prostate cancer patients are being referred. And when we look at the set of genes that would be remit recommended by the NCCN, we see that these same genes are seen in racially diverse populations.

They're seen in African American patients they're seen in Hispanic patients; they're seen in Asian patients. Some of the mutations look like they might be a little lower, in fact, in African American and Hispanic patients such as mutations and BRCA 1 and 2 the ATM gene.