Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Nov 2;2(1):138.
doi: 10.1038/s43856-022-00205-5.

Genetic determinants for the racial disparities in the risk of prostate and testicular cancers

Ivie Uzamere #  1 , Yinqiao Wang #  1 , Tongzhang Zheng  2 , Yong Zhu  3
Affiliations

Genetic determinants for the racial disparities in the risk of prostate and testicular cancers

Ivie Uzamere et al. Commun Med (Lond). .

Abstract

Background: A worldwide higher incidence of prostate cancer and lower incidence of testicular cancer in men of African ancestry compared to European ancestry has been observed previously. However, underlying mechanisms accounting for these observations are largely unknown.

Methods: The current study analyzed previously reported SNPs associated with either prostate cancer or testicular cancer to examine whether the risk allele frequency could help us understand the observed incidence disparities in men of African ancestry and European ancestry. Both t-test and regression analysis were performed.

Results: Here we show that men of African ancestry are more likely to have risk alleles of prostate cancer and less likely to have risk alleles of testicular cancer compared to men of European ancestry.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that genetic factors may play an important role in the racial disparities in the risk of prostate and testicular cancers.

Plain language summary

It has been observed that men of African ancestry have a higher incidence of prostate cancer and lower incidence of testicular cancer compared to men of European ancestry. However, little is known about underlying mechanisms accounting for these observations. The current study compares frequencies of all genetic alterations associated with risks of prostate cancer or testicular cancer between the two racial groups. Our findings suggest that differences in the frequencies of genetic alterations between the groups may help to explain the racial disparities in the risk of prostate and testicular cancers.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Comparison of risk allele frequencies of prostate and testicular cancers between men of African descent and European descent.
a Average weighted risk allele frequency of prostate cancer was significantly higher in men of African descent compared to men of European ancestry descent (n = 226; p = 0.025). b Average weighted risk allele frequency of testicular cancer was significantly lower in men of African descent compared to men of European descent (n = 79; p = 0.014).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Regression lines of risk allele frequencies between African and European descent for prostate and testicular cancers.
a The regression line of prostate cancer data (slope = 1.152) skewed above the standard line (slope = 1) towards African population. The differences between the slopes were highly significant (n = 226; p = 0.0039). b The regression line of testicular cancer data (slope = 0.705) skewed below the standard line slope (slope = 1) towards European population. The differences between the slopes were highly significant (n = 79; p < 0.0001).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Filippou P, Ferguson JE, 3rd, Nielsen ME. Epidemiology of prostate and testicular cancer. Semin. Intervent. Radiol. 2016;33:182–185. doi: 10.1055/s-0036-1586146. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Holmes L, Jr., et al. Testicular cancer incidence trends in the USA (1975-2004): plateau or shifting racial paradigm? Public Health. 2008;122:862–872. doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2007.10.010. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nicolas N, et al. African-American prostate normal and cancer cells for health disparities research. Adv. Exp. Med. Biol. 2019;1164:101–108. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-22254-3_8. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Elzinga-Tinke JE, Dohle GR, Looijenga LH. Etiology and early pathogenesis of malignant testicular germ cell tumors: towards possibilities for preinvasive diagnosis. Asian J. Androl. 2015;17:381–393. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sudmant PH, et al. An integrated map of structural variation in 2,504 human genomes. Nature. 2015;526:75–81. doi: 10.1038/nature15394. - DOI - PMC - PubMed