Prostate-specific antigen and new serum biomarkers for evaluation of chemopreventive agents

A great deal of effort regarding the basic understanding and clinical relev ance of the prevention of prostate cancer has emerged over the past decade. Chemoprevention or the administration of a drug or other agent in an attem pt to prevent, inhibit, or delay the progression of localized prostate canc er has gained the most recent attention. Efforts have focused primarily in the identification of bioactive chemopreventive agents, risk factors identi fying individuals with the highest likelihood of developing prostate cancer , pathologic identification of premalignant lesions, and epidemiologic stud ies to better understand the natural history of early prostate cancer. Howe ver, less work has been focused on identifying and characterizing our prese ntly available biomarkers in an attempt to validate their use as surrogate endpoints or documenting their clinical utility in chemoprevention. This up date will focus on a critical evaluation of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) , percentage of free PSA, and human glandular kallikrein-2 (hK2) and how th ey may be used or misused for chemoprevention studies. (C) 2001, Elsevier S cience Inc.