Ground Report

Gene sleuths identified more than 10 new genetic links to prostate cancer,two of which would be included in a new diagnostic test aimed at spotting men at risk from this disease.Men with prostate cancer had a strong tendency to have telitale variants in locations of chromosomes 2,3,6,7,10,11 and 19 and the X chromosome for gender, they reported in the lastest issue of Nature Genetics.One of the group of investigators worked in Iceland,trawling over a local DNA treasure trove.Two of the genetic variants,on the X chromosome and chromosome 2,would be included in a new lab test for prostate cancer,they said.They new diagnostic tool,called deCODE PrCa,would look for a total of eight such signatures,said deCODE genetics,a biopharmaceutical company that is looking through the Icelandic DNA data in the search for new medical products.