Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer affecting US men today, with over 230,000 new diagnoses projected in 20141.
Today, half of men diagnosed with localized prostate cancer will choose radical prostatectomy to treat their disease. Up to half will present after surgery with pathology or clinical features that put them at high risk for cancer recurrence, also referred to as metastasis2. Current clinical practice guidelines recommend that these men be offered radiation treatment after surgery.
Although they are considered high risk, 9 out of 10 of those men will not develop metastases or die of prostate cancer, meaning that – if treated – these patients may receive no benefit, and may be subject to unnecessary prostate cancer treatment side effects3.
Decision-making and the timing around secondary therapy is complex, and it’s acknowledged that many patients may be over-treated. As such, there is a need for better stratification of high-risk men after surgery to enable more informed decision-making and optimized treatment selection.
Learn more about how Decipher is addressing these challenges.
- Cancer Facts & Figures 2014, ACS, 2014
- Swanson, G.P. & J.W. Basler, Prognostic factors for failure after prostatectomy. J Cancer, 2011. 2: p. 1-19.
- Thompson, I.M., Jr., et al., Adjuvant radiotherapy for pathologically advanced prostate cancer: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA, 2006. 296(19): p. 2329-35.