Background

Prostate cancer, the most common cause of death among American men is known to be heterogenous, ranging from asymptomatic to rapid progression and to systemic malignancy. Although the wide-spread use of PSA screening led to earlier detection, it also resulted in over diagnosis and overtreatment of indolent disease. While the over-arching issue is distinguishing lethal from non-lethal disease, four clinical problems associated with management of prostate cancer from early to late stages include: 1) Diagnostic Accuracy 2) Risk Stratification 3) Recurrent Disease Management and 4) Focal Therapy. To address the challenges of clinical assessment and treatment, developing diagnosis or prognosis methods based on new molecular biomarkers is important.