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<p>Abstract</p> <p>Epidemiologic research conducted over the last two decades has led us to believe that inherited factors play an important role in the aetiology of prostate cancer, but the genes which underlie the inherited susceptibility are elusive. The most compelling associations to date are with genes involved in DNA damage repair, including <it>BRCA2</it>. In Poland we have initiated a programme to identify DNA variants which confer an increased risk of prostate cancer and other cancers. Here we review our recent results. We found that germline mutations in <it>BRCA1</it>, <it>CHEK2 </it>and <it>NBS1 </it>confer an increased prostate cancer risk in Polish men. We provide evidence that <it>CHEK2 </it>is a multi-organ cancer susceptibility gene. We show that inherited variation in <it>RNASEL </it>and <it>MSR1 </it>genes do not contribute to prostate cancer development in Poland.</p>