Prostate cancer: targeting complexity.

摘要

Despite enormous capital investments in biomedical research and bioengineering, treatment modalities for prostate cancer patients have remained very much unchanged for the past several decades. Clearly, we have witnessed many scientific and technological breakthroughs, such as the discovery of new biomarkers, the contkiuous evolution of minimally invasive surgical approaches, and the development of targeted therapies that seek to disrupt tumor progression on a molecular level. Nevertheless, many of these new discoveries do not fulfill their initial promise and eventually fail once tested in clinical trials. Specifically, the profound lack of systemic agents that effectively target advanced forms of prostate cancer has been a major disappointment. In 2008, hormonal manipulations or cytotoxic therapies remain the only treatment options for metastatic disease, both being associated with considerable toxicity but impacting only minimally on overall survival.