Clinical relevance of prostate cancer genetic characterization: literature review

Molecular and genetic characterization of the prostate cancer seems to be a very relevant issue for clinical practice with regard to diagnostics, prognosis, treatment selection and assessment of therapy efficacy. A lot of fundamental studies assault the genetic basis of the disease and the differences in the phenotypic traits of prostate tumors. However, the significant gap is seen between the huge amount of studies to genetic characterization of prostate cancer, which often have a limited way to translation into the clinical practice or simply were not conceived to be so, and clinical practice. Substantial difficulties on the way are multifocality of the prostate carcinoma, inter- and intrafocal heterogeneity and abundance of recurrent genetic alterations, the role of which is understudied to date. In this review we have aimed at the providing an overview of the current studies, being the most close to translation in clinical practice. The common applications and problems are discussed.