The Future of Prostate Cancer Risk Prediction

Abstract

Prostate cancer (PCA) is a difficult disease to diagnose and treat appropriately as the majority of cases detected have an indolent form and do not have a major impact on mortality. The real challenge therefore is being able to selectively identify the aggressive forms of the disease and treat those effectively. “Risk” potentially offers a unifying concept for improving the diagnostic and care pathways for PCA. It also has the potential to inform men on their underlying risk to consider possible preventive and enhanced screening strategies. Risk prediction models can help guide both the patient and the medical team in deciding on the most appropriate diagnostic and treatment pathways to follow. This review will focus on current risk prediction models for diagnosis in the community and predict likely further trends for the wider developments of risk models to more fully inform the full prevention, diagnostic and treatment management options for PCA.