Metastatic prostate cancer: complications and treatment.

Despite highly successful treatments for localized prostate cancer, approximately 35% to 40% of men will eventually experience a detectable rise in serum prostate specific antigen. A portion of these men will go on to experience clinically expressed extracapsular disease, with as many as two-thirds having evidence of bone involvement. Diagnosis of skeletal involvement involves serum markers of disease progression and radiological evaluation. Skeletal-related events are numerous and include bone pain, spinal cord compression, vertebral collapse, and pathological fractures. Current treatments for advanced prostate cancer include individual or combined hormonal therapies, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgical treatments, and most recently, antiresorptive medications.