F. T. D’ARCY ET AL. 291
prostate cancer risk and D541E mutation, however no link
between this variant and either age at diagnosis or tu-
mour aggressiveness was found.
Maier’s patients were recruited from the Prostate Can-
cer Genetics Project. This is a database made up of men
from predominately from the South of Germany, the ma-
jority of whom would have undergone radical prostatec-
tomies. Patients are encouraged to enrol in this study by
their urologist and there are no selection criteria. At risk
families are identified by interview of the patient. There
were a total of 303 of such patients. 227 sporadic cases
were also sequenced as well as 207 control samples.
These samples came from healthy, elderly men with no
history of prostate cancer and negative DRE and/or nor-
mal PSA levels. D541E or R462Q failed to demonstrate any
significant association with prostate cancer in this study.
Noonan-Wheeler’s study originated in Missouri, USA.
It examined RNase L in men with aggressive, metastatic
cancer and healthy controls. Patients were recruited from
the outpatient department and were required to have a
PSA over 50 ng/ml or radiological/pathological evidence
of metastatic disease. The control group consisted of men
older than 75 with normal PSA levels and rectal exami-
nation with no background of prostate cancer. There
were a total of 150 patients and 171 controls examined. It
was shown that D541E was over-represented (p = 0.045)
in patients with metastatic disease, and concluded that
such patients were at an increased risk for sporadic, me-
tastatic disease (OR = 1.68).
Nakazato’s study came from Japan and examined
RNase L in familial prostate cancer cases and healthy
controls. It comprised 101 patients with a positive family
history of cancer (29 of whom had 3 or more affected
family members) and 105 controls. Prostate cancer pa-
tients ranged in age from 40 to 88 years, encompassed
organ confined and metastatic disease and had 76 men
with a Gleason score of 7 or greater and the remaining 26
with a Gleason score of 6 or less. Control cases were
recruited from the outpatients department and were of
similar age. Patients with an elevated PSA or abnormal
DRE were excluded from this group. Interestingly this
study demonstrated a significant link between the wild-
type DD variant and familial prostate cancer (p = 0.0004,
OR = 7.37), possibly an observation unique to the Japa-
nese population.
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, no statistically significant correlation was
proven in the Irish population between Gleason score,
percentage gland involvement, patient age, PSA or fam-
ily history with any of the studied SNPs. In particular the
SNP rs3738579 failed to highlight men with significant
clinical cancer.
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