Men who carry the BRCA2 gene mutation, which is linked to breast and ovarian cancer, are at risk of developing aggressive prostate cancer and so should undergo regular prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing, suggest findings from a major study.
The IMPACT Study involved almost 3000 men from 20 countries who were recruited from families known to harbor carriers of mutations of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes and who underwent annual PSA testing and biopsy. The study was presented at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) 2019 Cancer Conference.
The results, which were published recently in European Urology, show that men who carried the BRCA2 mutations were almost twice as likely to develop prostate cancer than were noncarriers. They were also diagnosed with prostate cancer at a younger age and had more clinically significant disease.