A Viable Ancestry-Specific Prostate Cancer Genetic Risk Score

A study found that a corrected genetic risk score (GRS) based on non-European racial/ethnic populations is more appropriate for genetic testing in prostate cancer (PCa) screening. The results were reported in the journal European Urology Open Science.

“Reliability of PCa GRS, that is, the concordance between its estimated risk and observed risk, is required for genetic testing at the individual level. Reliability data are lacking for non-European racial/ethnic populations, which hinders its clinical use and exacerbates racial disparity,” the researchers wrote.

In this study, PCa ancestry specific GRSs were analyzed among 888,086 European (EUR), 81,109 Hispanic (HIS), 30,472 African (AFR), and 13,985 East Asian (EAS) ancestry men, as classified by 23andMe’s ancestry composition algorithm. The main end point of interest was defined as the concordance between the observed and estimated PCa risks at ten ancestry-specific GRS.

The study results showed a linear trend of an increased observed PCa prevalence in men with higher ancestry-specific GRS deciles in each respective racial population (all p _-trend < 0.001). “A systematic bias of ancestry-specific GRS in the direction of an overestimated risk for men in the highest decile was found in EUR and non-EUR populations,” the researchers wrote of the results. They added that “GRS is well calibrated after correction and is appropriate for genetic testing at the individual level for personalized PCa screening.”