ABSTRACT
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in men. Although considerable progress in the clinical setting has been made in recent decades, early detection, reliable prognosis, and more and improved treatment options are needed to decrease mortality and morbidity from this disease significantly. The basis of the development and progression of cancer is an accumulation of genetic changes within the genomic DNA of the cancer cells. These chromosomal deletions, amplifications, mutations and rearrangements lead to differences in expression of genes (to be measured on the RNA level) and, subsequently, expression and modification of their protein products. Identification of these changes at the DNA, RNA and protein level is the first step towards the discovery of markers for the presence and progression of cancer. The combination of our expanded knowledge of the human genome, and the introduction of technologies to perform high-throughput DNA, RNA and protein analyses, has led to a refined understanding of cancer progression and the discovery of novel markers and therapeutic targets. Moreover, expression profiles of tumor RNA and serum proteins might become the latest tools to diagnose patients reliably, predict disease outcome and advise patient-tailored treatment regimens.
