Urinary tumor markers for diagnosis of prostate cancer

Abstract

Prostate cancer is currently one of the most common health problems in the male population. It holds place as the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States and most regions worldwide and is the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths in males. High incidence of this cancer has brought developments in diagnostic and treatment methods. The most important screening method in diagnosis is measurement of serum prostate specific antigen (PSA). Digital rectal examination is also an important component of diagnosis. While PSA is the most important diagnostic method, it is specific to the prostate but not specific to prostate cancer. Elevated PSA levels may also occur in benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and inflammation of the prostate gland. In other words, PSA is a method with low specificity that does not only increase in prostate cancer and may result in false positives and unnecessary biopsies. Therefore, new markers for the diagnosis of prostate cancer are being researched. For this purpose, it has been observed that many proteins, molecules, DNA and RNA markers in urine can be used in the diagnosis of prostate cancer.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

The authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.