Prostate cancer is of significant public health importance because it is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death among men in the United States. Although the etiology of prostate cancer remains unknown, epidemiologic studies have consistently demonstrated genetic susceptibility to this disease. To date, efforts to identify susceptibility genes have primarily focused on genes involved in androgen biosynthesis and growth factors. However, there remain several candidate pathways that have yet to be adequately studied. Chronic or recurrent inflammation is known to play a causative role in the development of many human cancers. Inflammatory changes have been recognized in prostate tissues for many years, leading to speculation that inflammation might contribute to prostate cancer development. The exact mechanism by which inflammation might act in tumor development and progression remains to be elucidated and is likely to be complex. Inflammation-associated DNA damage, decreased apoptosis (bypassing p53), growth and survival factors, angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis may all play a role in the development and progression of prostate cancer. We hypothesize that sequence variants in a number of inflammatory genes are associated with prostate cancer risk. To test this hypothesis, we propose to 1) perform exploratory tests for association of Prostate cancer risk with inflammatory gene sequence variants in an established Prostate cancer case-control population that was collected in Sweden, 2) perform confirmatory tests for association of Prostate cancer risk with a subset of inflammatory gene sequence variants that have been implicated in the first population in a second newly collected Swedish Prostate cancer case-control population and 3) explore the functional impact of htSNPs and htSNP-haplotypes on the corresponding protein levels in serum and/or prostate tissue for a subset of inflammatory genes that have been implicated in both study populations. Answers to these questions will significantly improve our knowledge of the role of inflammation in prostate cancer and will guide our efforts in identifying additional prostate cancer genes.
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