When a doctor recommended to Steven Kalister that he get screened for genes associated with breast cancer a few years ago, the Columbus East Side resident was surprised.

Kalister, 50, did not have breast cancer — a disease uncommon (though not unheard of) among men — or any form of malignancy, for that matter. But his father had died from metastatic prostate cancer, so Steve was seeking precautions besides common tests like digital rectal exams and prostate-specific antigen screenings.

The oncologist, Steven Clinton at Ohio State University’s comprehensive cancer care center, explained to Kalister that mutations in two genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA, could have caused his father’s cancer, and might have been passed down to him. “BRCA” stands for Breast Cancer Gene, because that is what researchers first found it to be associated it with. However, science has since connected the BRCA genes with a range of malignant tumors that affect men and women, from melanoma to pancreatic, ovarian, and prostate cancers.