Previous reports have tied BRCA2 gene mutations to breast and ovarian cancer, as well as the development of prostate cancer. However it has been unclear if the mutations also influenced progression of prostate cancer.

Now, lead author Dr. Laufey Tryggvadottir, from the Icelandic Cancer Registry in Reykjavik, and colleagues report that the Icelandic BRCA2 999del5 mutation is strongly predictive of aggressive, lethal prostate cancer.

In their study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the researchers assessed the occurrence of the BRCA2 999del5 mutation in 527 prostate cancer patients and then compared survival, disease stage, and tumor grade between carriers and noncarriers.

Thirty patients (5.7 percent) carried the mutation, the report indicates. Carriage of the mutation was associated with a younger age at diagnosis (69 years versus 74 years for noncarriers), more advanced disease stage, and higher tumor grade, indicating the cancer is aggressive.

The mutation was also strongly linked to survival. The average survival period for carriers was just 2.1 years compared with 12.4 years in noncarriers. After adjusting the data for the affects of disease stage and tumor grade, risk of dying from prostate cancer was 2.35-times higher for BRCA2 carriers than for noncarriers.

These results suggest the need for prostate cancer surveillance among BRCA2 999del5 carriers. "Also, it is of great importance to study whether these results can be confirmed for carriers of mutations at other locations within the BRCA2 gene," the researchers note.

The team concludes that in searching for new methods of predicting prostate cancer progression, "it may be fruitful to look for gene or protein expression patterns in prostate cancers resembling the patterns seen in BRCA2 mutation carriers."