Scientists have identified seven new genetic variants that appear to be linked with increase risk of prostate cancer. Among these are four new “single-letter” genetic variants on one particular chromosome, called 8q24.

This chromosomal region has previously been associated with breast, colon, and bladder cancer. The discoveries identifying the four new genetic locations associated with prostate cancer on chromosome 8q24 were made by teams of independent scientists around the world. Three separate research papers on the discoveries are published in the online issue of Nature Genetics.

In one of the papers, Rosalind Eeles, from the London, UK Institute of Cancer Research laboratory (ICR) and colleagues in the Genetic Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, report on the discovery of seven new prostate cancer susceptibility loci. In this video Dr. Eeles explains what her team found. She says they plan to take the results “into the clinic” to try to predict which men may need early testing for prostate cancer. Dr. Eeles says 8q is a “very interesting part of the genome for solid cancer risk.”