Working together to find a cure for prostate cancer

Every year almost 180,000 American men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and at least 26,000 die from the disease, making it one of the most common and deadly cancers among men.¹ But when prostate cancer is diagnosed and treated early, survival rates are high. And only some prostate cancers become aggressive, metastasizing cancers.

One of the most powerful tools for identifying whether there’s an increased risk of developing metastatic prostate cancer is genetic testing. A recent New England Journal of Medicine article showed that up to 12% of men with metastatic prostate cancer have a mutation in several of the genes that are analyzed as part of Color’s Hereditary Cancer Test. To that end, Color and researchers at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center are partnering on the GENTleMEN Study, a study aiming to remove barriers to genetic testing with the hope of understanding family cancer risk and and finding better therapies for men diagnosed with advanced stages of prostate cancer.

The study, which is starting in the state of Washington and will eventually expand to other sites, will involve an on-line participant survey and include Color testing for hereditary cancer risk at no charge for enrollees with metastatic prostate cancer. The results from the Color test will help investigators give study participants a better understanding of their genetic risk for additional hereditary cancers, and may suggest treatment options for personalized therapeutics such as PARP inhibitors and other chemotherapies.

Funding from the Color Foundation and the Institute for Prostate Cancer Research covers testing for all eligible participants who have metastatic prostate cancer. We encourage men with prostate cancer from the Washington state area to learn more about the GENTleMEN Study and find out if you’re eligible. Everyone who joins our project gets us closer to achieving our goal of testing every man with metastatic prostate cancer, and using this knowledge to offer current and future patients better cancer treatment options.

Footnotes:

1. Federal Task Force Softens Opposition To Routine Prostate Cancer Screening. NPR.org. http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/04/11/522912221/federal-task-force-softens-opposition-to-routine-prostate-cancer-screening. Published April 11, 2017. Accessed October 23, 2017.