" In contrast to many cancers, only certain prostate tumors require treatment. Many are slow-growing and pose little threat to health. But separating the "tigers" from the "pussycats" -- as oncologists dub them -- is tricky."

" Now that is set to change with new research showing how a genetic variation within tumour cells can signal if a patient has a potentially fatal form of the disease."

" "This will provide an extra degree of certainty as to whether a cancer is going to be aggressive or indolent, and that's really what we want to know," Colin Cooper, professor of molecular biology at Britain's Institute of Cancer Research, told Reuters."

" "Many people get treated radically but probably two-thirds of them never needed treating," he added. "

" Radical prostate surgery often causes debilitating side effects such as impotence and incontinence, so any system that minimizes treatment would be a major boon to quality of life."

" Cooper, who worked with Jack Cuzick at London's Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine on the new genetic marker, explained in a paper in the journal Oncogene how a particular genetic change could affect survival rates dramatically."

" Researchers knew that prostate cancers commonly contain a fusion of the TMPRSS2 and ERG genes, but the new study found that in 6.6 percent of cases
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