Dr. Giri Discusses Testing for Inherited Prostate Cancer

Veda Giri, MD, associate professor, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, discusses testing for inherited prostate cancer.

There are few scenarios in which men should consider getting tested for inherited prostate cancer, says Giri. For a man who has had metastatic disease and is progressing after going through the standard lines of therapy, genetics can inform additional options for treatment or clinical trials. There are increasing FDA indications for PARP inhibitors and checkpoint inhibitors for patients with mismatch repair-deficient cancers, says Giri.

Another group of men who may want to consider genetic testing are those who have a family history of cancer. This is not limited to prostate cancer, says Giri, but men who have a family history of breast, ovarian, pancreatic or colon cancer, as these malignancies can be linked to inherited risk for prostate cancer.