Significant cellular alterations required for the development and progression of cancers are detectable at the molecular level and represent potential targets for gene-specific therapies. Modern chip techniques allow the parallel analysis of virtually all known human genes and proteins in a single experiment. Using modern high-throughput techniques, numerous potential new biomarkers for the diagnosis and prediction of prostate cancer have been identified. However, so far none of these markers has improved clinical practice. One of the most important challenges in the coming years is the extensive clinical validation of molecular data using clinically relevant end points. For this venture the pivotal prerequisite is the availability of large, comprehensively annotated and standardized high-quality bioresources.
