Genetic variants and prostate cancer susceptibility

Prostate cancer (PCa) kills one man in forty five and represents the most frequently diagnosed cancer in American men. As is true with cancer, early detection through digital rectal exam and serum testing for prostate specific antigen have greatly reduced the number of fatalities yet these same methods sometimes lead to overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Previous studies have highlighted the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and cancer. In our studies, we sought to find correlations between SNPs on chromosome 8 and PCa. Normal and PCa patient sequencing data was obtained from the Sequence Read Archive and then analysis pipelines were constructed to map the sequences against chromosome 8 followed by indexing and variant calling. Our studies were able to identify four SNPs specific to DNA sequences isolated from prostate cancer tissues but that were absent in normal tissues. We hope that our findings might help improve personalized medicine and possibly reduce the incidences of overdiagnosis and overtreatment of PCa.