Mini Review of Prostate Cancer Diagnostics

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) prostate cancer is the second cause of cancer death in men worldwide [1,2]. Some advanced prostate cancers have well known symptoms. However non-cancerous diseases of the prostate, such as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) cause same symptoms. On the other hand, at very early stages, prostate cancer has no symptoms, the tumor dimension is quite small, and it is extremely difficult to detect it. If prostate cancer is detected at an early stage, it can be successfully cured by different methods. At the later stages, treatment or surgery has very low efficiency. Prostate cancer can often be found by measuring the amount of PSA in the blood. Most healthy men have levels under 4 nano-grams per milliliter (ng/mL) of blood. When prostate cancer develops, the PSA level usually goes above 4. However, for determination of the existence of cancer, some additional methods are used: for example: PSA velocity [3,4] and/or PSA density. Besides, measurement of the ratio of free to total PSA is additional tool in prostate cancer diagnosis [5]. However, the major drawback of PSA determination is its relative lack of specificity. The PSA level can also be increased by benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) a noncancerous enlargement of the prostate, prostatitis, etc.