Prostate cancer linked to female genes

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Can men inherit risk for a uniquely male disease from their mothers?

New research raises that odd possibility. Scientists think they have found a gene that predisposes men to prostate cancer in parts of a cell that come exclusively from mothers.

The find gives scientists a different place to look for cancer genes, and it could help biologists better understand what causes prostate cancer, the most common type of tumor in America.

The work was reported this week at a meeting in Anaheim of the American Association for Cancer Research.

More than 99 percent of a person's genes are contained in the nucleus, but a very small number are in tiny structures called mitochondria, little energy factories in cells. Mitochondria are inherited from mothers.

Dr. John Petros and others at Emory University in Atlanta analyzed tissue samples from about 260 prostate cancer patients and found abnormalities in a mitochondrial gene called CO1.

The gene helps regulate whether harmful substances that can set the stage for cancer are produced in a cell. Researchers then examined the gene in about 50 healthy men. They found that the gene was abnormal in 12 percent of those with prostate cancer but in only one man without the disease.