Comparing DNA-repair gene mutations in African American and Caucasian men with prostate cancer

Reviewed by James Ives, M.Psych. (Editor)Feb 3 2020

Pathogenic or likely pathogenic alterations in these 14 DNA repair genes were less likely to be detected in African Americans as compared to Caucasians.

Upon a more in-depth analysis, the risk of germline pathogenic/likely pathogenic BRCA mutations was similar between the two populations whereas there was a lower risk among African Americans for the non-BRCA mutations.

Dr. Oliver Sartor from the Tulane Cancer Center at the Tulane University of School of Medicine in New Orleans Louisiana, United States said in an Oncotarget article,

African American (AA) men are incompletely characterized with regard to germline DNA repair mutations in the prostate cancer datasets published to date."

Herein the authors used a large commercial DNA germline assessment data set to compare frequencies of pathogenic/likely pathogenic alterations in 14 well characterized DNA repair genes assessed in both AA men and Caucasian American men with prostate cancer.

The Sartor Research Team concluded in their Oncotarget paper that they recognize not all of these mutations, such as the CHEK2 mutation, may be actionable at this time but these data may have implications as precision therapeutics evolve.