Prognosis and predictive factors in prostate cancer

Prostate carcinoma represents a major public health issue and an important share of the oncological practice. As well as for other types of carcinoma, the therapeutic strategy might be guided by the identification of prognosis factors. For a localized prostate cancer, 3 pretherapeutic factors are often used: evaluation of the clinical stage, Gleason's score on prostatic biopsies and prostate specific antigen (PSA). Their combination is at the origine of multiple prognosis classifications and allowed the elaboration of statistical models, such as nomograms. These different tools are suitable for pretherapeutic evaluations of the histologic stage as well as for the evaluation of recurrence's risk. In case of metastastic disease, other clinical and biological prognosis factors state for the tumor's activity. Currently the identification of biomolecular markers through the techniques of tissue micro-array, the analysis of biological markers of angiogenesis as well as the analysis of circulating tumor cells could contribute to a better definition of the prognosis and predictive factors of this pathology.