MONDAY, Nov. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Doctors may someday be able to use five genetic markers to assess whether a man is at high risk to develop prostate cancer, a new study suggests.

If reliable, these five "single nucleotide polymorphisms" (SNPs) would be especially important for black patients, or men of any race with a family history of prostate cancer. These two groups have a twofold to sevenfold increased chance of developing the disease, experts note.

The research is scheduled to be presented Monday at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual conference on cancer prevention in Washington, D.C.

"There have been years of effort to try to identify genes and genetic mutations associated with prostate cancer, as there are [such genes] for breast cancer," Dr. Veda N. Giri, director of the Prostate Cancer Risk Assessment Program (PRAP) at Fox Chase Cancer Center, in Philadelphia, explained in a news release issued by the conference organizers. "Prostate cancer is a more genetically complex disease."

The study included 700 men with either one first-degree relative with prostate cancer or two second-degree relatives with prostate cancer on the same side of the family. Giri and colleagues said they found similarities in these five genetic markers among high-risk white men and those already diagnosed with prostate cancer. The findings were even more profound among black men.

"When we compared African-American men in PRAP to the high-risk Caucasian men in PRAP, we did find a difference," she said. "African-American men tended to carry more of these genetic risk markers compared to the Caucasian men. Since African-American men carry more of these particular genetic markers, they may be more informative for prostate cancer risk assessment in African-American men."

The researchers also found a trend that black men who carried more of these risk markers tended to develop prostate cancer earlier, Giri said, however, the finding was not statistically significant.

"These markers may have significant use in personalizing the early detection of prostate cancer in men at high risk in order to provide tailored recommendations for screening and diagnosis of this disease," Giri said.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about prostate cancer.

FRIDAY, Nov. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Age and gender are important to the success of hip resurfacing, say U.S. researchers who reviewed more than 500 surgeries and found the majority of serious complications occurred in women of all ages and men over age 55.

Hip resurfacing offers an alternative to hip replacement, in which the ball of the hip joint is removed and replaced with a metal stem inserted into the thigh bone. In hip resurfacing, the ball of the hip joint remains, but its surface is reshaped to accept a rounded cap with a short stem that sits in the thigh bone, or femur.

Study lead author Dr. Craig Della Valle, a joint reconstruction specialist at Rush University Medical Center, and colleagues looked at the first 537 hip resurfacing surgeries performed in the United States using the Birmingham Hip Resurfacing implant, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in October 2006.

Serious complications occurred in 32 of the cases, including 10 cases in which the femoral neck fractured after surgery. These types of fractures, which don't occur in hip replacements, required additional surgery.

Nine of the 10 femoral neck fractures occurred in either female patients or those older than 55. Eight of the fractures occurred in cases where the surgeon was relatively inexperienced with the procedure (10 or fewer hip resurfacing surgeries).

"Patients who are older or who are female tend to have softer bone. Also, men on average have larger bone structures, with a greater surface area for securing the implant," Della Valle explained in a Rush University news release. Males under the age of 55 are the ideal patients for hip resurfacing, the experts said.

"Patients may be eager to take advantage of technological innovations, but for older individuals, a conventional hip replacement is generally more appropriate," Della Valle advised.

The study was released online and was expected to be published in the January print issue of the journal Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research.

More information

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons has more about hip implants  .