Leonard G. Gomella, MD, FACS presented “Genetic Testing for Inherited Prostate Cancer” during the 19th Annual Future Directions in Urology Symposium on August 11, 2018 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
How to cite: Gomella, Leonard G. “Genetic Testing for Inherited Prostate Cancer” August 11, 2018. Accessed [date today]. https://grandroundsinurology.com/genetic-testing-for-inherited-prostate-cancer/
Genetic Testing for Inherited Prostate Cancer – Summary
Leonard G. Gomella, MD, FACS, discusses the evolving role of genetic testing for inherited family risks in prostate cancer patients. He advises urologists to be attentive to recent developments in genetic testing in order to better detect cancers in individual patients and their family members.
Inherited Family Risks
In general, urologists have always inquired into a patient’s family medical history when treating prostate cancer patients. However, urologists now recognize that patients can have inherited risks beyond prostate cancer, such as breast, ovarian, or pancreatic cancer, or melanoma. Recent data supports that BRCA1 and BRCA2, the established target genes in the setting of breast and ovarian cancer, also operate in prostate cancer. Therefore, urologists must perform more comprehensive family histories than in the past.
Advice to Urologists Regarding Available Genetic Tests
There are a variety of general and prostate-cancer-specific genetic testing panels available to assess patients has a suspected inherited familial cancer syndrome risk. Dr. Gomella advises urologists to increase their awareness of patients’ family history. Attentiveness to inherited family risks not only helps to detect prostate cancer in an individual patient. It also helps to detect other cancers in the patient and the patient’s family members. Additionally, urologists should partner with a professional medical genetic counselor.
About Dr. Gomella
Dr. Gomella is the Chairman of the Department of Urology at Jefferson University Hospitals. Due to his involvement in developing new diagnostic techniques for prostate cancer through Jefferson’s Kimmel Cancer Center, he has much experience in genetic testing for inherited prostate cancer.
About the Future Directions in Urology Symposium
The Future Directions in Urology Symposium (FDUS) is an annual collaborative meeting with a faculty consisting of the top researchers, physicians, and educators in the field of urology. During FDUS, experts provide updates on recent developments and debate innovative management approaches in genitourinary cancers and urologic conditions. Subsequently, the experts devise consensus statements in accordance with the discussions held in the meeting.
In this video, Dr. Gomella discloses the thesis of the discussion he led during FDUS.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leonard G. Gomella, MD, FACS, is the Bernard W. Godwin, Jr. Professor of Prostate Cancer and chair of the department of urology at Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he also serves as senior director for clinical affairs. Originally from New York, Dr. Gomella completed medical school and general surgery and urology training at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. After a urologic oncology fellowship in the surgery branch of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, he joined Thomas Jefferson University in 1988 and was appointed chair of the urology department in 2002. From 1998 until 2020 he was urology chair for the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) (now NRG Oncology) and from 2008 until 2019 he was clinical director of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center Network.
Dr. Gomella is involved in translational basic science and clinical research developing new diagnostic tests and treatments for prostate, bladder, and kidney cancer through the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center where he has co-led the Biology of Prostate Cancer Program. Dr. Gomella's team was first to use molecular techniques (RT-PCR) in 1992 to detect circulating prostate cancer micrometastases, the first report of “liquid biopsy,” a discovery that led to a new field of investigation in this disease. Dr. Gomella is also recognized for developing the multidisciplinary clinic approach to prostate cancer and was an early contributor to urologic laparoscopy. He led the urology effort in the 2017 and 2019 Philadelphia Prostate Cancer International Consensus that provided the first multidisciplinary guidance on genetic testing for prostate cancer.
Dr. Gomella has given over 600 presentations nationally and internationally and written over 600 papers, chapters and monographs in urology. He has authored and edited 63 editions of 17 different books for medical students, residents, and practicing physicians, many of which have been translated into foreign languages. Dr. Gomella has consistently earned recognition for urologic oncology and prostate cancer, including a 2015 national recognition in Newsweek. In 2007, Men’s Health Magazine listed Dr. Gomella as one of the 20 top urologists in the US. Among other awards, in 2018 the Society of Urologic Oncology presented him with a “Distinguished Service Award.” In 2019, Dr. Gomella was named Enterprise Urology Vice President for Jefferson Health. Additionally, the American Urological Association (AUA) awarded him “Honorary Membership” status in 2023 in recognition for his contributions and leadership in urologic oncology. Dr. Gomella has been president of the Mid-Atlantic section of the AUA and elected to the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons and the prestigious Clinical Society of Genitourinary Surgeons.
