The Tyler Medical Clinic

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Cancer of the Prostate

Within the last 10 years, the science of genetics has been progressing very rapidly in all fields of medicine. Very significant discovery of the genome, made sometime ago, represents a quality change from one level of knowledge to the other. Unfortunately, it is frequently misunderstood. So far we can trace only some of the diseases, which have obviously a genetic bond. Many others still are outside of our technical capabilities, but rapid progression of the methodology techniques and better understanding, more and more of these diseases will be identified and the genetic changes responsible for them demonstrated. An obvious tie of certain genetic makeup in a particular family with high incidence of a particular disease will be proven.

Many diseases, inclusive of cancer, might have different etiologies (reasons for existence). Some of them occur at random, some of them are passed on by transferring of genetic changes, and some of them are a combination of both. People who have a given genetic change don’t necessarily develop the disease every time. On the other hand, those who are suffering of various types may not have a genetic line of inheritance, at least not proven yet.

One of those conditions, which have been shown recently to have genetic background in certain percentage, is a cancer of the prostate. The researchers and epidemiologists did find that some patients have an inherited genetic predisposition for development of the cancer of the prostate. This particular cancer, besides presence or absence of genetic changes, also has significant difference in the clinical course. Some patients live practically normal life span after being diagnosed with prostatic cancer and die at old age of unrelated cause. In some others, this particular cancer can be very aggressive. Certain percentages of patients, who eventually end up with cancer of the prostate, have a genetic line passed on in their families. These patients are specifically candidates for a Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) procedure. An oocyte can be retrieved from the mother’s ovary, fertilized with the father’s sperm, and the resulting embryo, examined for gender. If only female embryos are transferred back into the uterus of the mother, the danger of developing prostatic cancer is obviously nonexistent.

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) thus can offer to this particular category of cancer patients a possibility of having a child who will not suffer from cancer of the prostate. The question, which has not been answered yet, is if a son of that particular child/daughter produced through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) will have again higher incidence of cancer of the prostate. That of course is an issue to be answered several decades from now and with the rapid advances in medicine hopefully by that time cures of cancer of the prostate as well as other cancers might be found and practiced. For this reason, for the time being, those who have increased risk of developing cancer of the prostate, should benefit by Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis and gender selection.

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Last modified: 06/09/04