Novel Biomarkers for Disease Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Prediction

Carcinoma of the prostate is the second leading cause of male cancer-related death in the United States. It is estimated that in 2005 there will be approximately 232,090 new cases and 30,350 deaths from this disease (1). Since the introduction of serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening of asymptomatic populations, prostate cancer incidence rates have increased dramatically, as have the number of men undergoing radical prostatectomy and radiation therapy for this disease (1,2). However, false positives for PSA continue to be a significant problem resulting in unnecessary biopsies, and the value of broad-based PSA testing with regard to predicting surgical cures has recently come into question (3).