Molecular pathogenesis of prostate cancer

Abstract

With a lifetime risk of 17%, prostate cancer is the second most common malignancy in men. Although the vast majority of patients will have an excellent prognosis, a rapid progression of disease with metastatic spread is seen in some. Therefore, therapy may vary from active surveillance over hormone therapy and chemotherapy to radical prostatectomy. Thus, the molecular heterogeneity of prostate cancer is supposed to alter the tumour's biological behaviour. This section starts with a brief introduction of prostate cancer in order to give readers a quick overview. Main signalling pathways, genes and proteins involved in the molecular pathogenesis of prostate cancer will be discussed in the second part. One emphasis is placed on the interactions between the different proteins, genes and signalling pathways. Another focus is on the characterisation of the impact of aberrant molecular profiles on the prognosis of patients with prostate cancer.