The data collected from the study will provide a preliminary picture of the prevalence and type of germline pathological variants in the context of early-onset prostate cancer in the Italian population. In addition, alterations in DNA repair genes other than BRCA1-2 and ATM, including any genes yet undescribed as causative or predisposing, have yet to be explored in detail: in many cases the significance of variants is not well defined in terms of pathogenicity, prognostic value, and predictive indicator of response to different treatments. Therefore, an extensive mutational analysis-even if performed on a limited number of patients-can generate a large number of variants for evaluation, bringing knowledge about the relationship between these variants and the onset of malignancy The information obtained, although merely exploratory, may indicate the desirability of conducting systematic genetic investigations in this particular patient population in the future, especially in view of the new therapeutic strategies available such as immunotherapy or PARP inhibitors
