ASCL1 and Familial prostate cancer: ASCL1 (also known as mASH1 or hASH1) is an activator-type pro-neural bHLH transcription factor of the neurogenin family that has been reported as overexpressed in neuroendocrine tumors of several malignancies, including in medullary thyroid cancer, small cell lung cancer and prostate cancer [59,60,61,62].