[updated February 25, 2011]
Researchers have discovered 24 genetic types of prostate cancer.
A July 2010 article by Mary Boutrel Conover provides an overview and links to the research and a June 2010 Wall Street Journal article also provides interesting detail. Also see this August 2010 NCI summary.
Researchers quoted in the above articles anticipate a lab test to determine prostate cancer type within a year and publicly available tests within a few years. These tests may allow the determination of aggressiveness in perhaps half of all cases. Further work currently underway may increase that percentage. At the monent it is known that there is substantial over-treatment of prostate cancer but current technology has lacked the means to reliably distinguish between aggressive and non-aggressive forms of the disease.
The genetic information being compiled is publicly available at the MSK cancer genomics data portal.
2011 update: Recently researchers have sequenced an entire prostate cancer genome. See: PCF news.
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