Foreword

Similar to carcinoma of the breast, the incidence of carcinoma of theprostate increases with age. There is a common adage that “100 percentof men 100 years old have prostate carcinoma.” Carcinoma of theprostate, after superficial skin cancer, is the most common cancer in menin the United States and the most common cause of death, after lungcancer. In a little more than 10 years, after the recent advent of wide-scalescreening with prostate-specific antigen, the age-adjusted incidence ofcarcinoma of the prostate has more than doubled. This has beenassociated with a substantial increase in cancer survival, almost certainlybecause of the phenomenon of stage migration.

In this issue of Current Problems in Surgery, Drs Makoto Ohori andPeter Scardino of the Department of Urology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center devote their substantial expertise to a monographon “Localized Prostate Cancer.” Their work is broadly inclusive andaddresses every aspect of the diagnosis and treatment of patients with thisdisease. The illustrations are excellent, and the references are abundant.For clinicians who are interested in prostate cancer this monograph willbe a “sole source” document.

Samuel A. Wells, Jr, MDEditor-in-Chief

Curr Probl Surg, September 2002 837