About this Research Topic
Prostate cancer (PC) is one of the most common cancers in males and the fifth leading cause of death worldwide. Age, ethnicity, family history, and genetic defects are major factors that determine the prognosis of PC. The discovery of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) has led to significant advances in prostate cancer early detection and management. Despite the possibilities for early detection, one of the key clinical challenges in the management of PC remains distinguishing between low- and high-risk cancers due to its slow natural progression. Recent data suggests more men will die with PC than from it. This is related to the rising incidence as a cause of over-detection of clinically insignificant cancers due to wide-spread PSA testing.
The concept of ‘clinically significant PCa’ is widely used to identify PCa that may cause morbidity or death in a specific patient from types that may never cause harm. Identifying clinically insignificant cancers is important as these are at high risk of being over-treated, with the treatment itself having potentially harmful side effects that may decrease the patient's quality of life. Several attempts to improve the specificity of PSA testing have been made and complementary tests and risk calculators have been developed that may aid in deciding on the most appropriate management, particularly radical surgical treatment as opposed to active surveillance or watchful waiting.
Additionally, novel imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging have improved the positive predictive value when compared to PSA testing alone and may spare certain patient from unnecessary diagnostic procedures. In addition, the wide-spread opportunistic screening approach to prostate cancer screening has not yielded the desired population-wide effect in reducing mortality. Implementing organized screening coupled with novel risk stratification algorithms has been proposed as a strategy to mitigate the harm caused by over-diagnosis and over-treatment, and maximize the benefits, particularly in terms of reducing prostate cancer mortality.
This Research Topic welcomes the submission of Original Research, Reviews, Mini-Review, Methods, Case reports, Clinical Trial Reports, and Perspective articles that cover, but are not limited to the following areas:
-Prostate cancer screening and early detection
-Risk stratification and biomarkers (molecular, imaging, other)
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
The concept of ‘clinically significant PCa’ is widely used to identify PCa that may cause morbidity or death in a specific patient from types that may never cause harm. Identifying clinically insignificant cancers is important as these are at high risk of being over-treated, with the treatment itself having potentially harmful side effects that may decrease the patient's quality of life. Several attempts to improve the specificity of PSA testing have been made and complementary tests and risk calculators have been developed that may aid in deciding on the most appropriate management, particularly radical surgical treatment as opposed to active surveillance or watchful waiting.
Additionally, novel imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging have improved the positive predictive value when compared to PSA testing alone and may spare certain patient from unnecessary diagnostic procedures. In addition, the wide-spread opportunistic screening approach to prostate cancer screening has not yielded the desired population-wide effect in reducing mortality. Implementing organized screening coupled with novel risk stratification algorithms has been proposed as a strategy to mitigate the harm caused by over-diagnosis and over-treatment, and maximize the benefits, particularly in terms of reducing prostate cancer mortality.
This Research Topic welcomes the submission of Original Research, Reviews, Mini-Review, Methods, Case reports, Clinical Trial Reports, and Perspective articles that cover, but are not limited to the following areas:
-Prostate cancer screening and early detection
-Risk stratification and biomarkers (molecular, imaging, other)
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
Keywords: prostate cancer, testing, prevention, diagnosis, oncology, cancer
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