Hnpcc and Prostate Cancer
Student
Introduction
Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colorectal Cancer (HNPCC or Lynch Syndrome) is an inherited predisposition to colorectal cancer and other cancers. The “non-polyposis” stems from the knowledge that this form of bowel cancer can occur with formation of few or no polyps. First named over 100 years ago, it is the most common form of familial colorectal cancer, however only accounts for around 5% of all bowel cancer cases. Other cancers that HNCPP increases the risk of includes: endometrial cancer, duodenal cancer, cancer of the ureter and renal pelvis, ovarian cancer and brain tumours. As yet, prostate cancer is not recognised as part of the syndrome.
The prostate gland is a part of the male human anatomy that surrounds the neck of the bladder and urethra. Its function is to secrete a substance that makes up part of the seminal fluid that carries semen. When cells in the prostate start to replicate abnormally, a tumour will develop, and in many cases can become cancerous. Prostate cancer affects around 40,000 men per year in the UK accounting for 13% of all UK cancer diagnoses. Some prostate cancers can grow very slowly (known as low risk prostate cancers) or incredibly quickly (known as aggressive). Low risk prostate cancer sufferers, on the whole, have a higher chance of recovery due to the cancer usually being contained entirely in the prostate gland. Aggressive prostate cancer has the ability to grow and spread out with the prostate at a high speed, making early diagnosis essential to beating this cancer.
Mismatch Repair Genes
In mismatch repair, enzymes remove and replace incorrectly paired nucleotides that have occurred due to replication errors. Lynch syndrome occurs when there is a defect in one of these mismatch repair (MMR) genes: MLH1, MSH2, MSH6 and PMS2. This is because the replication errors are not being corrected as normal, allowing a build-up of carcinogenic errors to accumulate much faster in the DNA. (Campbell, Reece
Introduction
Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colorectal Cancer (HNPCC or Lynch Syndrome) is an inherited predisposition to colorectal cancer and other cancers. The “non-polyposis” stems from the knowledge that this form of bowel cancer can occur with formation of few or no polyps. First named over 100 years ago, it is the most common form of familial colorectal cancer, however only accounts for around 5% of all bowel cancer cases. Other cancers that HNCPP increases the risk of includes: endometrial cancer, duodenal cancer, cancer of the ureter and renal pelvis, ovarian cancer and brain tumours. As yet, prostate cancer is not recognised as part of the syndrome.
The prostate gland is a part of the male human anatomy that surrounds the neck of the bladder and urethra. Its function is to secrete a substance that makes up part of the seminal fluid that carries semen. When cells in the prostate start to replicate abnormally, a tumour will develop, and in many cases can become cancerous. Prostate cancer affects around 40,000 men per year in the UK accounting for 13% of all UK cancer diagnoses. Some prostate cancers can grow very slowly (known as low risk prostate cancers) or incredibly quickly (known as aggressive). Low risk prostate cancer sufferers, on the whole, have a higher chance of recovery due to the cancer usually being contained entirely in the prostate gland. Aggressive prostate cancer has the ability to grow and spread out with the prostate at a high speed, making early diagnosis essential to beating this cancer.
Mismatch Repair Genes
In mismatch repair, enzymes remove and replace incorrectly paired nucleotides that have occurred due to replication errors. Lynch syndrome occurs when there is a defect in one of these mismatch repair (MMR) genes: MLH1, MSH2, MSH6 and PMS2. This is because the replication errors are not being corrected as normal, allowing a build-up of carcinogenic errors to accumulate much faster in the DNA. (Campbell, Reece