Role of Molecular Diagnostics in Prostate Cancer

Prostate Cancer (PCa) is recognized as one of the most commonly diagnosed malignancies in the male population, and its incidence has greatly risen over the past few decades. In 2017, it is estimated that 161,360 new cases of PCa will be diagnosed accounting for 20% of cancer diagnoses in males, and approximately 26,730 deaths will result from the disease [1]. This is a consequence of a higher awareness of PCa and increased frequency of screening, made possible with the advent of new diagnostic biomarkers and assays such as Prostate specific antigen (PSA) [2, 3]. This biomarker as well as other clinical, histological, and pathological screening and diagnostic tools have led to earlier PCa detection, an increased detection rate of low risk disease that can be managed effectively with treatment, and a decrease in the proportion of men who present with metastatic cancer [4, 5]. As a result, both the age-adjusted and overall mortality rate associated with PCa have decreased significantly over the past 30 years [6, 7]. Specifically, the death rate from PCa dropped 51% from 1993 to 2014 [1]. However, there are still concerns about the way in which PCa is diagnosed and managed at large.