Novel therapeutic strategies in prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most common noncutaneous cancer in American men and the second most common cause of death. It is estimated that in 2003, 220,900 new cases will be diagnosed and 28,900 men will die from the disease.1 Hormonal therapy via surgical or chemical castration is the mainstay of treatment for metastatic prostate cancer. While this is quite effective initially, with time patients become refractory to this treatment and may require additional therapy. There have been a substantial number of novel agents that have been developed in the last 10 years that show promise in the treatment of patients with prostate cancer, when used alone or when combined with current approaches (Table 1).