Early diagnosis of prostate cancer

Approximately 50 per cent of patients with carcinoma of the prostate have either advanced local disease or metastases at the time of diagnosis. To achieve earlier diagnosis of prostate cancer in its localized, most treatable stages, it will be necessary to develop safe, cost-effective screening tests with sufficiently high sensitivity and specificity rates. To date, no single test fulfills these criteria, although advances in the measurement of serologic markers of prostate cancer such as prostate-specific antigen, fine-needle aspiration cytology of the prostate, and transrectal prostatic ultrasonography are being widely investigated as potential screening tests.