In a study of 743 Black men diagnosed with prostate cancer at or before age 62, four percent of the men had mutations in one or more of 14 genes that could have contributed to the development of their cancer.
Those with these mutations were more likely to have higher PSA levels, more advanced prostate cancer, and to have a close family member with prostate cancer linked to a gene mutation.
The researchers at Duke University looked specifically at the DNA in the men’s sperm because mutations there could be passed on to their sons.
- See: “Prostate Cancer: How Family History, Gene Variants Raise the Risks for Black Men” by Eileen Bailey on the Healthline website (December 6, 2022)
- See the full text of the scientific paper “Germline Variants in DNA Damage Repair Genes and HOXB13 Among Black Patients With Early-Onset Prostate Cancer” by Matthew R. Trendowski et al.
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