Description: WEDNESDAY, Aug. 1 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. researchers say they've spotted special "gene fusions" that help trigger prostate cancer.

Researchers at the University of Michigan (U-M) Comprehensive Cancer Center found that pieces of two chromosomes can trade places with each other and cause two genes to fuse together. These fused genes then override the "off" switch that prevents uncontrolled cell growth -- key to the development of prostate cancer.

The researchers, who conducted experiments with mice and cell cultures, found that this prostate-cancer causing fusion can occur in a number of genes from the same family. The genes from that family fuse with either ERG or ETV1, two genes known to be involved in several types of cancer.

The study appears in the Aug. 2 issue of the journal Nature.

"Each of these switches, or gene fusions, represent different molecular subtypes. This tells us there's not just one type of prostate cancer. It's a more complex disease and potentially ne