Lancet
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Because more and more men are being diagnosed with prostate cancer worldwide, knowledge about and prevention of this disease is important. Epidemiological studies have provided some insight about the cause of prostate cancer in terms of diet and genetic factors. However, compared with other common cancers such as breast and lung cancer, the causes remain poorly understood. Several important issues could help in our understanding of this disease-the variation in incidence of prostate cancer between ethnic populations and the factors leading to familial clustering of the diseases.
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Inability to replicate many results has led to increasing scepticism about the value of simple association study designs for detection of genetic variants contributing to common complex traits. Much attention has been drawn to the problems that might, in theory, bedevil this approach, including confounding from population structure, misclassification of outcome, and allelic heterogeneity. ⋯ We suggest that the most important factors underlying inability to replicate these associations are publication bias, failure to attribute results to chance, and inadequate sample sizes, problems that are all rectifiable. Without changes to present practice, we risk wastage of scientific effort and rejection of a potentially useful research strategy.