Department of Urology, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Charing Cross Hospital, London, United Kingdom.
Department of Urology, General Hospital of Nikea, Kinikiou 30, Nikea, Greece.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer and the second most common cause of cancer-related death in men. Screening with prostate specific antigen (PSA) has led to a clinical and pathological stage migration such that currently most men diagnosed with prostate cancer have clinically localized disease potentially offering opportunity for curative intervention. On the other hand, the benefit of radical therapy in terms of reducing overall mortality in PSA-screened populations has been controversial with concerns being raised about over-diagnosis and over-treatment. Treatment of prostate cancer is associated with risk and complications that negatively affect the quality of life of men with localized disease. Recently, a new treatment paradigm has been proposed which is called focal therapy, defined as an individualized treatment by which only known disease is targeted and ablated while preserving normal tissue. This review will attempt to describe the opportunities and uncertainties behind this proposed paradigm shift.
Written by:
Karavitakis M, Winkler MH, Abel PD, Hazell S, Ahmed HU. Are you the author?
Reference: Discov Med. 2011 Sep;12(64):245-55.
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 21955852
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