Those hopes have been whittled down. So far, comprehensive family histories haven't elucidated the cancer's hereditary underpinnings--the genetic component of prostate cancer continues to confound loci researchers. And, these researchers are not the only ones scratching their heads. Those studying genes involved in prostate cancer tumorigenesis have been able to find only a few tumor suppressor genes specific to prostate cancer, which was diagnosed in 170,000 men last year. "There are a lot of ideas about how to pursue prostate cancer," says William Foulkes, an assistant professor of medicine at McGill University. "But it's not obvious that there's any new technique out there that's going to solve the problems suddenly."
Unlike colon or breast cancer research, research into prostate cancer, which killed 31,000 men in 2000, hasn't yet uncovered genes that provide real prognostic value. Studies investigating tumorigenesis, for example, speak to the biology of the cancer itself; they are ...
