The Molecular Pathogenesis of Human Prostate Cancer

摘要

Prostate cancer (PCA) has become the most commonly diagnosed cancer among men in the USA, with an estimated 189,000 cases diagnosed in 2002 (1). Encouragingly, over the past several years, increased use of serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening has increased the fraction of men diagnosed with PCA confined to the prostate gland, leading to more effective use of surgery and radiation therapy for treatment, and to a decline in PCA mortality (2,3). Despite these improvements, some 30,200 men will likely died of progressive metastatic cancer in 2002 (1). Furthermore, even though men with early PCA can be cured using surgery or radiation therapy, the side effects of treatment frequently include erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence, or rectal irritation (4-6). New insights into the etiology of PCA are needed so that new strategies for its prevention can be developed.