Recent Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment of Prostate Cancer

The incidence of metastatic prostate cancer (mPC) in the U.S. has increased in the past 20 years, five-year survival after diagnosis is only about 20 % and treatment represents a major health care expense. Comprehensive summaries of important details of diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer (PC) have been provided by several prominent medical organizations (http://www.urologyhealth.org). The present review summarizes recent advances in diagnosis and treatment of PC, including ⁶⁸gallium-prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-11 positron emission tomography (PET) as the preferred standard for initial staging and post-treatment detection of recurrence, different forms of radiation therapy, and applications of newly approved androgen receptor signaling inhibitors. Somatic and germline genetic analyses have identified PC patients with mutations in genes involved in DNA damage repair who benefit from use of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors or immune check-point inhibitors. Developing novel therapies also are described as hopeful possibilities.