PRACTICAL Australia
The principal aim of PRACTICAL Australia is to contribute substantively to the prostate cancer component of the European Union Collaborative Ovarian Prostate and Breast Cancer Gene Environment Study (EU-COGS) by providing as much genotyping, clinical, tumour pathology and lifestyle/environmental data as possible from Australian epidemiological studies of prostate cancer.
It is anticipated that the Melbourne studies will contribute an additional 2000 cases and 4000 controls and the Brisbane study 1236 cases and 1000 controls. The APCRC-Q participated in the prostate cancer genome wide scan, which helped to identify a number of genetic variants associated with prostate cancer risk.
The EU-COGS application has arisen from genome wide scans that identify common genetic variants associated with breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer risk. The aim of EU-COGS is to determine whether these genetic variants act singly or together and the extent to which lifestyle and environmental factors can modify the genetic risk.
COGS measure these variants in a large number of cases and controls from an international consortium of studies to test whether genetic risks are modified by other genes or lifestyle factors. This will better define genetic risks and identify men at increased risk who should be the focus of appropriate screening and prevention strategies.
