Researchers identify genetic variants linked to radiotherapy side effects in patients with prostate cancer -
A new study involving researchers from the University of Manchester looked the genetic information of more than 1,500 prostate cancer patients and identified two variants linked to increased risk of radiotherapy side effects.
Nearly 50% of the 1.1 million people worldwide a year diagnosed with prostate cancer undergo radiation therapy. It is an effective treatment, but between 10 and 50 percent of men suffer from side effects that radiation can cause long term problems with urination or rectal bleeding.
It is not known why some people are more sensitive to side effects following doses are kept low to minimize the risk in all patients - reduce the effectiveness of treatment. The new study Radiogenomics Consortium coordinated Manchester was to identify if there were genetic markers that might explain it.
genetic profiling was performed on 1,564 patients from four centers based in Europe and North America. It examined genetic variants described as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are part of the subunits of DNA.
Two years after radiation therapy, 17.8% of the group had suffered from rectal bleeding, 15% increase in urinary frequency and a 8.1% decrease in urine flow.
professor of radiobiology, Catharine West of the University of Manchester Institute of Science Cancer led the research. She said: "The first studies of the SNPs were smaller We had to show we could combine them to increase the number of patients studied and improve our ability to identify genetic variants centers give radiotherapy in different ways and we need to show this variability was .. not a problem. "
found two variants were associated with increased frequency of urination and decreased the flow of urine.
causes associations are not clear, but both identified SNPs are located in genes regions that are expressed in tissues exposed to radiation.
results show radiation cohorts can be combined and larger studies should identify enough variants to develop a test to predict the risk of radiotherapy side-a cancer patient effects
Professor West added :. "There are currently more than 32 million people alive five years after cancer, so that the side effects of their treatment is an important issue for them. If we can develop a test which means that people can reduce the risk these problems will be of huge benefit to this group. "
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