The role of chemotherapy and new targeted agents in the management of primary prostate cancer

Abstract

While early treatment of primary prostate cancer is very effective, the incidence of primary prostate cancer continues to rise and therefore the detection of men with high-risk non-metastatic prostate cancer and their subsequent management is becoming increasingly important. There continues to be no molecularly-targeted or chemotherapeutic options with proven, statistically significant survival benefit in this setting. However, there are indications that further risk stratification using molecular features could potentially help distinguish indolent from aggressive prostate cancer, ultimately providing biological markers that could guide a more personalised approach to therapy selection.