This study found that a certain variant associated with prostate cancer also increased the risk for colorectal cancer.

This study was large enough to show even variants with modest effects. It also used an ethnically diverse population. Researchers conducted a large study of 1,807 patients with cancer and 5,511 healthy controls. The samples were derived from five populations in the Multiethnic Cohort Study: African-Americans, Japanese-Americans, native Hawaiians, Latinos and European-Americans. The researchers showed that a certain genetic variant on chromosome 8 thought to raise the risk of prostate cancer was also a culprit in colorectal cancer.

More: To read an abstract of this paper on PubMed, a medical database, click here.