World Leaders in Prostate Cancer Genetics Come Together for International Conference
29 November 2006
Austria
In the UK alone nearly 32,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, and the disease accounts for nearly one quarter (23%) of all new male cancer diagnoses. Approximately 200,000 men are diagnosed annually in the EU, and the incidence is on the increase.
The meeting will take place in Szczecin from the 28th - 30th of November with the support of the Pomeranian Medical University’s International Hereditary Cancer Centre (IHCC), Poland, and the Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine, Turkey. It is funded by the the EC-funded AIDIT project. The project aims to facilitate the inclusion of more research teams from the EU’s associated candidate countries and new member states into an international study looking at targeted screening for prostate cancer called IMPACT.
The IMPACT study is the first international screening study for men with a genetic risk of prostate cancer. It has been reported that men who have an alteration in their BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene have an increased risk of prostate cancer. IMPACT, which currently involves research centres from over 20 different countries, aims to see if targeting cancer screening at carriers of these alterations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, will lead to diagnosis of prostate cancer at an earlier stage.
Delegates from all over Europe and further afield are expected to attend the meeting, and they will hear from leading experts in the field of prostate cancer and cancer genetics.
Dr Ros Eeles, Team Leader in Translational Cancer Genetics at The Institute of Cancer Research, and chief investigator of IMPACT and AIDIT, commented, “This is a very exciting collaboration where researchers in over 20 countries are working together to offer prostate cancer screening to this higher risk group”
The meeting will take place in Szczecin from the 28th - 30th of November with the support of the Pomeranian Medical University’s International Hereditary Cancer Centre (IHCC), Poland, and the Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine, Turkey. It is funded by the the EC-funded AIDIT project. The project aims to facilitate the inclusion of more research teams from the EU’s associated candidate countries and new member states into an international study looking at targeted screening for prostate cancer called IMPACT.
The IMPACT study is the first international screening study for men with a genetic risk of prostate cancer. It has been reported that men who have an alteration in their BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene have an increased risk of prostate cancer. IMPACT, which currently involves research centres from over 20 different countries, aims to see if targeting cancer screening at carriers of these alterations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, will lead to diagnosis of prostate cancer at an earlier stage.
Delegates from all over Europe and further afield are expected to attend the meeting, and they will hear from leading experts in the field of prostate cancer and cancer genetics.
Dr Ros Eeles, Team Leader in Translational Cancer Genetics at The Institute of Cancer Research, and chief investigator of IMPACT and AIDIT, commented, “This is a very exciting collaboration where researchers in over 20 countries are working together to offer prostate cancer screening to this higher risk group”