[Personalised medicine in prostate cancer]

Abstract

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. Its incidence increases with age. New treatment options have been introduced and there is a clear trend to more aggressive treatment in newly diagnosed metastatic disease. While prolonged survival of patients has been achieved, the new expensive drugs are associated with an increased burden on the healthcare system. Meanwhile, similarly to other tumour entities, there is a pool of different drugs available with comparable oncologic efficacy, but different side-effects. Effective diagnostic investigation and treatment decisions require additional factors, above and beyond clinical parameters, for a more individual treatment approach. In castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPCA), there are promising molecular markers for treatment decisions. In metastatic disease, liquid biopsies and next generation sequencing of metastatic biopsies allow for genetic analysis. These will provide more insight into tumour dynamics and allow for patient selection. This review concentrates on molecular markers in CRPCA.