Background: In the United States, incidence of prostate cancer in African American men is more than twice than that of any other race. Thus far, numerous disease susceptibility loci have been identified for this cancer but definite locus-specific information is not yet established due to the tremendous amount of genetic and disease heterogeneity; additionally, despite high prevalence of prostate cancer amongst African American men, this population has been under represented in genetic studies of prostate cancer.
Methods: In order to identify the susceptible locus (loci) for prostate cancer in African Americans, we have performed linkage analyses on members of 15 large high-risk families. Specifically, these families were recruited from Louisiana and represent a uniquely admixed African American population exclusive to Southern Louisiana. In addition to geographical constraints, these families were clinically homogeneous creating a well-characterized collection of large pedigrees. The families were genotyped with Illumina Infinium II SNP HumanLinkage-12 panel and extensive demographic and clinical information was documented from the hospital pathological reports and family interviews.
Results: We identified two novel regions, 12q24 and 2p16, with suggestive evidence of linkage under the dominant model of inheritance.
Conclusions: This is the first time that chromosome 12q24 (HLOD = 2.21) and 2p16 (HLOD = 1.97) has been shown to be associated with prostate cancer in high-risk African American families. These results provide insight to prostate cancer in an exceptional, well-characterized African American population, and illustrate the significance of utilizing large unique, but homogenous pedigrees.
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