3 Genes Found Linked to Testicular Cancer

Testicular cancer is the most prevalent cancer in males 15 to 45 years of age. The sickness is far more genetically determined than other cancers. For example, men with a brother who has testicular cancer are 8 to 10 times more likely to develop it themselves than men with no family history of the disorder.

The scientists assembled two groups of men: 979 with testicular cancer and 4,947 apparently without. After testing their genomes, they discovered genetic anomalies in three regions—on chromosomes 5, 9, and 12—that were considerably more common in the testicular cancer group. To confirm their findings, they performed their testing again on an additional 664 men with the disease and 3,466 without.
   
Men with the anomalies had a higher susceptibility to testicular cancer. Within each region, the team noted a gene they thought likely to play a role in causing testicular cancer. The three genes are known as TERT, ATF7IP, and DMRT1.
   
The first two are instrumental in keeping the chromosome ends, called telomeres, at a healthy length. Too-short telomeres are characteristic of many cancers. In addition, an abnormal TERT gene is associated with cancers of the lung, bladder, cervix, pancreas, skin and prostate gland. The third gene spotlighted by the ICR group, DMRT1, is important in determining sex and has been linked to teratoma, a type of testicular cancer, in mice.

“The genes located in these regions give us clues to the mechanisms by which testicular cancer develops,” said Nazneen Rahman, the study’s senior author and a staffer at the ICR. “In time this may allow us to develop new treatment options.”
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he study’s lead author, Clare Turnbull, also of the ICR, commented: “This study represents further, important progress towards identifying men who are at increased genetic risk of testicular cancer. Finding those men at highest risk may allow early detection or prevention of the disease.”

Earlier research by the same team had found three genetic variants related to testicular cancer. This most recent work increases that number to six