Biomarkers with Prognostic Potential in Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer (CaP) is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among men and the second leading cause of cancer death for men in both economically developed and developing countries. CaP is usually diagnosed at an early stage with prostate biopsy, following a screening test showing elevated serum levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and/or a positive digital rectal examination. Early CaP diagnosis is the main cause for the significant decrease of metastatic cases, observed during the last twenty years. On the other hand, the wide use of the PSA screening test led also to CaP overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Because of the large variation of CaP characteristics and clinicopathological features, accurate prognosis of CaP patients is a very important issue that determines treatment options. In this chapter, we review the most promising prognostic CaP biomarkers that have been suggested so far. In the emerging era of personalized medicine, these CaP biomarkers could be exploited in the clinics to increase CaP patients’ survival and quality of life.

Keywords: Androgen receptor, Kallikrein-related peptidase, KLK, miRNA, Prognosis, Prostate carcinoma, Prostate-specific antigen, PSA, PCA3, Tumor marker.