Prostate cancer

Abstract

Prostate cancer is the most enigmatic of the common malignancies. Second only to lung cancer as a killer of men beyond middle age, it clearly warrants much more attention than it currently receives from governments, researchers, and particularly the general public worldwide. One major reason for this neglect is the observation that the majority of men as they age harbor small foci of adenocarcinoma within their prostate that often never become clinically significant. 1 As a consequence, worries about over-diagnosis and overtreatment have surfaced and turned many doctors away from the task of identifying and treating earlier the more aggressive lesions that so commonly cause significant morbidity and mortality.