Prostatic carcinoma is the most common male malignancy in most Western countries.
Several environmental factors have been suggested to contributed to the tumor genesis but the involvement of genetic factors is also recognized. Here we applied a variety of molecular genetic techniques to characterize somatic and constitutional genetic alterations in patients with these types of tumors. The disease is caused by the germline mutations of the VHL gene located in chromosomal region 3p25. We further showed the importance of VHL mutation analysis both in prognosis of patient and presymptomatic diagnosis of VHL mutation carriers. Particular note was emphasized on the selection of kidney donors from relatives of a possible VHL patient affected by bilateral RCCs.