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CNN Live Sunday

Faulty Gene Discovered for Prostate Cancer

Aired January 20, 2002 - 17:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we move on to medical front. Scientists have found a second faulty gene that may make some men for prone to prostate cancer; 189,000 men will be diagnosed this year. So, will this discovery lead to earlier detection and treatment?

CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now to talk more about this and you are the lucky person who gets to explain a really complicated story.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is complicated, but it has implications for all of us, so I think it's really important. In this particular story, as Carol said, the second gene that seems to be linked to prostate cancer, it could be important years from now, for the men who carry this gene.

Let's say, for example, that your father and you uncle had prostate cancer. You might gee, am I next? Now, years from now, if all of this science pans out, you might be able to go to your doctor and possibly be tested for this gene and then that would let you know if you should be tested for prostate cancer at an early age.

Let's say you are 20, well, if you carry the gene maybe you should be tested for prostate cancer and then if indeed you did have cancer, you could be treated for it earlier than you would have otherwise. And even if you didn't have prostate cancer, perhaps in the future maybe there would be some treatment that they could give you to prevent you from getting prostate cancer in the first place.

LIN: But does this mean, in the bottom line sense, that if you have this faulty gene that you are going to get prostate cancer?

COHEN: Not necessarily. The way these genes work for the most part, with diseases including prostate cancer and other diseases, is that it just increases the likelihood. For example, we have heard a lot about breast cancer genes. If you carry one of the breast cancer genes, it doesn't mean you are going to get it. It just increases the likelihood that you are going to get breast cancer. And so that then allows you again to start thinking about certain issues.

If you carry the breast cancer gene, mother and your aunt and your sister had it, at age 20 you might want to have you breast removed. You might not, but it then gives you choices once you know that you carry the gene.

LIN: Yeah, choices you may not want to have to make, but none the less...

COHEN: They are tough, but as they discover more and more of these genes, more and more of us will have to face the decision: A, do you want to be tested, and B, do you want to do anything about it if you test positive.

LIN: Yeah, in the meantime gives us the big scope. Every week it seems like we hear about a new gene detected and associated with a disease. What is going on here?

COHEN: Right, there is a gene for this, there is a gene for that, and then you hear there is more than one gene for this, and more than one gene for that.

With most diseases there are many, many genes associated with it. They found the second one for prostate cancer. They suspect that there are many more. It's important to remember that for almost all of these diseases there is an inherited form of the disease and a noninherited form.

If you get prostate cancer it doesn't mean you have a faulty gene. You may just be unlucky. You may have a non-inherited form of the disease. So with all of these diseases where you hear there is this gene and that gene, two important things to remember: One, there is usually more than one gene associated with any given disease, and No. 2, most diseases are not caused a known genetic defect, they are just by chance.

LIN: All right. Thanks Elizabeth.

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