Researchers at the Menzies Research Institute are starting to see exciting results in their work to find the answers to the problem of prostate cancer.

Researchers at the Menzies Research Institute are starting to see exciting results in their work to find the answers to the problem of prostate cancer.

The prostate cancer research team received a boost this week with a generous endowment from the late Mr Max Bruce, which will be used to continue to expand and develop Menzies' genealogical resources for prostate cancer genetics research.

Menzies Director Professor Simon Foote said that finding the genes underlying prostate cancer is crucial to our understanding of its biology.

"Once we can figure this out, it will improve our ability to diagnose the disease and to develop screening tests to identify those at risk," he said.

Prostate cancer is a complex disease and it is likely that there are many genes interacting with environmental factors to cause it. The Tasmanian population provides an ideal opportunity to study complex genetic diseases like prostate cancer.

"A genetics study of families with multiple cases of disease is a powerful approach used to identify genes contributing to risk. We know that a strong risk factor for prostate cancer is family history of disease, indicating that genes contribute to risk of this disease," said Professor Foote.

Prostate cancer researcher Dr Jo Dickinson said that a vital aspect of Menzies' work is to continue to identify families with multiple cases of prostate cancer, as this gives the study greater statistical power.

"Funds from the Max Bruce Trust administered by Peter Worrall Lawyers are supporting the work of Menzies' genealogical team to identify new families with multiple cases of prostate cancer," she said.

"So far, through an in-depth genetic analysis of one large family, we have identified a gene that is associated with prostate cancer. This is an important finding in our field, as few other genes that contribute to prostate cancer have been discovered to date.

"With the participation of new families, we will be able to further investigate this discovery and continue in our search for other genes contributing to prostate cancer risk.

"Whilst the outcome of projects such as this are generally of long term benefit rather than short term, the knowledge gleaned from finding the genes underlying prostate cancer has the potential to benefit not only families in Tasmania that are participating in our study, but also people nationally and world-wide who may develop prostate cancer in the future," said Dr Dickinson.

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