Molecular Pathobiology of Prostate Cancer

Angelo M. De Marzo¹

Prostatic adenocarcinoma represents the second leading cause of cancer death in American men. The recent application of molecular approaches to the study of prostate cancer has resulted in a rapid increase in the identification of somatic genome alterations as well as germline heritable risk factors in this disease. These findings are leading to a new understanding of the pathogenesis of prostate cancer and to the generation of new targets for diagnosis, prognosis, prediction of therapeutic response, and molecular imaging.