ABSTRACT
At the dawn of the new millennium, prostate cancer has become a major scourge for men as they age in the developed world. In the United States, autopsy series have revealed small prostate cancers in as many as 29% of men between age 30 and 40, and 64% of men between age 60 and 70 (1). With the current widespread use of serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing and digital rectal examination in the United States for prostate cancer screening, the lifetime risk of a prostate cancer diagnosis has risen to about one in six, whereas the lifetime risk of death from prostate cancer is on the order of 1 in 30 (2). Fortunately, since about 1994 or so, with increased diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer, age-adjusted prostate cancer death rates have fallen steadily (2). Whether this trend reflects a benefit of prostate cancer screening and/or early prostate cancer treatment on prostate cancer mortality has not been fully resolved (3,4). Nonetheless, while some men with prostate cancer do not appear to be at high risk for symptomatic or life-threatening prostate cancer progression, others continue to face the threat of death from the disease.
