Nomograms for prostate cancer: which and when to use

Abstract

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common solid cancer for men in the developed countries. Individual decision making is necessary for each patient because of the diversities in the biological characteristics of the PCa. It is difficult to guess how it will be diagnosed in which patient and how the course of the illness will be. Because of that, nomograms which have been created by the prognostic factors are frequency referenced sources for predicting the parameters of PCa. Having an information about the prognosis is important to make a choice between treatment alternatives and determine the risks on the subsequent periods. Prostate specific antigen (PSA), Gleason grade and clinical stage are seemed to be the most important prognostic factors in patients with PCa. Additionally, the pathological parameters on biopsy or radical prostatectomy (RP) specimens are remarkable prognostic criteria. The Partin tables for predicting the RP pathology and Kattan nomograms for predicting the biochemical recurrences free survival rates are the most frequently used nomograms. Today, these nomograms should not replace the clinical decisions but they give significant information for the patients' prognosis, treatment selection and follow up. This review focused on which of and when the nomograms that has been most recently developed and validated for PCa will be used.