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Nature Reviews Urology 6, 357–358 (1 July 2009) | doi:10.1038/nrurol.2009.108

Genetics: Susceptibility loci in a molecular subtype of prostate cancer

Robert J. Klein

Family history is an important risk factor for prostate cancer, and numerous studies aimed at identifying the genetic mutations responsible for this heritability have been conducted. While approaches based on detecting linkage between genetic markers and prostate cancer in affected families (Box 1) have produced inconsistent results, recent population-based genome-wide association studies have identified numerous common variants that lead to a modest increase in prostate cancer risk.