ABSTRACT
However, measures of outcome for patients with localized prostate cancer are not standardized: there is no agreement on the use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) as a biomarker, nor is there an accepted gold standard for the measurement of quality-of-life issues. In this chapter, I argue that the failure of the prostate cancer research community to identify standard endpoints for reporting treatment outcomes has resulted in a heterogeneous literature that defies the application of EMB techniques to comparisons of treatment for localized prostate cancer. Until such time as standard endpoints are agreed upon the development of best practice guidelines for treatment of localized prostate cancer using EBM will remain highly problematic.
