The role of genetic testing in prostate cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE OF REVIEW This review provides an overview of the current role of genetic testing in prostate cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment. RECENT FINDINGS: Recent studies have uncovered few but highly penetrant rare pathogenic mutations (RPMs), in genes, such as BRCA2, with strong prostate cancer risk and outcomes associations. Over 260 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have also been identified, each associated with small incremental prostate cancer risk and when combined in a polygenic risk score (PRS), they provide strong prostate cancer risk prediction but do not seem to predict outcomes. Tumor tissue sequencing can also help identify actionable somatic mutations in many patients with advanced prostate cancer and inform on their risk of harboring a germline pathogenic mutation. SUMMARY: RPM testing, PRS testing, and tumor sequencing all have current and/or potential future roles in personalized prostate cancer care.