[Emerging biomarkers for the diagnosis, staging and prognosis of prostate cancer]

Abstract

The introduction and widespread adoption of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) has revolutionized the way prostate cancer is diagnosed and treated. However, the use of PSA has also led to overdiagnosis and overtreatment of prostate cancer resulting in controversy about its use for screening. PSA also has limited predictive accuracy for predicting outcomes after treatment and for making clinical decisions about adjuvant and salvage therapies. Hence, there is an urgent need for novel biomarkers to supplement PSA for detection and management of prostate cancer. A plethora of promising blood- and urine-based biomarkers have shown promise in early studies and are at various stages of development (Human kallikrein 2, Early Prostate Cancer Antigen, Transforming Growth Factor-Beta 1 and Interleukin-6, Endoglin, PCA3, AMACR and ETS Gene Fusions). In this article, we review those biomarkers and then discuss the challenges a biomarker has to undergo before it is approved in a clinical use.