Issues

The cover image is adapted from Figure 3 in the article, "Prostate Cancer Biomarker Development: National Cancer Institute's Early Detection Research Network Prostate Cancer Collaborative Group Review," by Liss and colleagues. The figure shows an MRI-Ultrasound Fusion–guided technique for targeted prostate biopsy. Prostate cancer remains the most common non-skin cancer and second leading cause of death among men in the United States. Although progress has been made in diagnosis and risk assessment, many clinical questions remain regarding early identification of prostate cancer and management. The early detection of aggressive disease continues to provide high curative rates if diagnosed in a localized state. Unfortunately, prostate cancer displays significant heterogeneity within the prostate organ and between individual patients, making detection and treatment strategies complex. Although prostate cancer is common among men, the majority will not die from prostate cancer, introducing the issue of overtreatment as a major concern in clinical management of the disease. The focus of the future is to identify those at highest risk for aggressive prostate cancer and to develop prevention and screening strategies, as well as discerning the difference in malignant potential of diagnosed tumors. The Prostate Cancer Research Group of the National Cancer Institute's Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) has contributed to the progress in addressing these concerns. The strong focus on biomarker application optimizes the development of biomarkers with clinical utility as well as the early adoption of disruptive technologies, such as MRI imaging, into biomarker development workflows. Likewise, efforts to validate findings from laboratories outside of the EDRN, such as polygenic risk scores and capture of in-depth data from clinical cohorts provide unique resources to the biomarker community. For more information, see the article beginning on page 2454.