Abstract
Despite advances in diagnosis, treatment, and patient outcomes, prostate cancer remains an important public health problem. In the United States in 2010, an estimated 217,730 new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed and 32,050 men died as a result of this disease (Jemal et al. CA Cancer J Clin 60(5): 277–300, 2010). Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in US men. The natural history of prostate cancer is remarkably heterogeneous, ranging from clinically silent tumors never destined to impact a patient to aggressive, metastatic cancers which cause considerable morbidity and patient death. A recent autopsy study revealed a prostate cancer prevalence of 1 in 3 for men aged 60–69 (Yin et al. J Urol 179(3): 892–5, 2008). However, the risk of death from prostate cancer is only 3.4 %, highlighting the variable natural history of prostate cancer.