UK scientists discover new genetic indicators for testicular cancer

Researchers at the UK’s Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) have highlighted three new genetic risk factors for testicular cancer, doubling the number of genomic regions now known to be associated with the disease.

Researchers from the ICR, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the Cancer Research UK Genetic Epidemiology Units in Cambridge and at the University of Leeds scanned the genomes of around 1000 testicular cancer patients and around five times as many individuals evidently unaffected by the disease.

What they found was that the men with testicular cancer all had similar genetic variations in three regions. A subsequent study involving 670 men with cancer and 3500 controls confirmed the results.

Within chromosomes 5, 12 and 9 the researchers identified a gene most likely to be associated with the disease, known as TERT, ATF7IP and DMRT1 respectively.

TERT and ATF7IP are important in maintaining the correct length of the ends of chromosomes, which are called telomeres. It is known that shortened telomeres occur in many cancers, while genetic variants in TERT have already been specifically linked to lung, bladder, cervical, pancreatic, skin and prostate cancers.

DMRT1, the third gene identified in the new study, is key to determining sex and has been sited in studies of testicular cancer in mice.

"The genes located in these regions give us clues to the mechanisms by which testicular cancer develops,” said Professor Nazneen Rahman, a senior author of the report. “In time this may allow us to develop new treatment options”.