Emerging biomarkers in prostate cancer

Biomarkers may be proteins, RNA, DNA, autoantibodies or molecules that reliably diagnose cancer or serve as markers of prognosis. Prognosis is particularly important in prostate cancer, a disease many 'die with', but which kills only a minority of affected men. Prostate-specific antigen is widely used in screening for prostate cancer and has a significant false-positive rate, which leads to unnecessary biopsies, cost and anxiety. There is also a notable false-negative rate for prostate-specific antigen, with a significant number of high-grade tumors identified in men with a 'normal' prostate-specific antigen. Discovery and validation of improved diagnostic biomarkers is necessary. Biomarkers that would distinguish aggressive from more indolent forms of prostate cancer may be even more urgently required. High-throughput technologies that assay proteins, metabolites, DNA and RNA are generating candidate markers.