title: Prostate cancer in young men: an important clinical entity.
abstract: Prostate cancer is considered a disease of older men (aged >65 years), but today over 10% of new diagnoses in the USA occur in young men aged ≤55 years. Early-onset prostate cancer, that is prostate cancer diagnosed at age ≤55 years, differs from prostate cancer diagnosed at an older age in several ways. Firstly, among men with high-grade and advanced-stage prostate cancer, those diagnosed at a young age have a higher cause-specific mortality than men diagnosed at an older age, except those over age 80 years. This finding suggests that important biological differences exist between early-onset prostate cancer and late-onset disease. Secondly, early-onset prostate cancer has a strong genetic component, which indicates that young men with prostate cancer could benefit from evaluation of genetic risk. Furthermore, although the majority of men with early-onset prostate cancer are diagnosed with low-risk disease, the extended life expectancy of these patients exposes them to long-term effects of treatment-related morbidities and to long-term risk of disease progression leading to death from prostate cancer. For these reasons, patients with early-onset prostate cancer pose unique challenges, as well as opportunities, for both research and clinical communities. Current data suggest that early-onset prostate cancer is a distinct phenotype-from both an aetiological and clinical perspective-that deserves further attention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, 1500 East Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
authors.forename: Claudia A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Salinas
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tsodikov
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, 1500 East Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ishak-Howard
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, 1500 East Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
authors.forename: Kathleen A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Cooney
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D017668:Age of Onset; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D018450:Disease Progression; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D011468:Prostatectomy; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D015996:Survival Rate; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen