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Prostate cancer

Risk factors — you find what you are looking for

Understanding risk factors for prostate cancer is an important step towards personalized, risk-adapted early detection and prevention. Epidemiological studies, which are commonly used to identify risk factors, are prone to detection bias. This bias could substantially affect the observed relationship between putative risk factors and prostate cancer diagnosis.

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Figure 1: The potential for detection bias owing to prostate biopsy indication in the assessment of prostate cancer risk factors.

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Correspondence to Christopher J. D. Wallis.

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Wallis, C., Satkunasivam, R. Risk factors — you find what you are looking for. Nat Rev Urol 14, 202–204 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrurol.2016.267

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