Prostate Cancer Claims for a Personalized Medicine

Abstract

Hippocrates (Kos, Greece c. 460-c. 370 BC), generally referred to as the “Father of Western Medicine” remembers us “It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has.” Understanding the personal qualities of the patient, his lifestyle, and his previous medical history is a necessary base to approach prostate cancer (PCa). In times of worldwide changes, globalization, and migration, there is one value that needs maximum protection, since it represents a steady value and it is capable of representing a safe path through the difficulties of the present medicine toward the light of the future. That value is, undeniably, the human being. We have to pursue such commitment by our humanism and our medical culture. They are not a sheer amount of mere human attitude, or technical knowledge, or the tradition of a particular social group but they represent a theoretical and practical attitude consisting of multiple skills concerning the understanding of a disease in its personal and social implications and the ability to develop a balanced and sensible treatment.