The biology of solid tumor metastasis has been the subject of significant scientific and clinical interest for years and while experimental evidence reveals that metastasis is not solely a random event, very little is known about the biology of metastasis originating from prostate cancer. This is in spite of the fact that the majority of prostate cancer patients die with metastatic lesions to the bone. Progress in understanding this most important aspect of prostate cancer has been hampered by the lack of suitable animal models and an inability to accurately quantify bone metastases and their responses to therapy. Over the past decade, scientists in Japan and the United States have steadily advanced our understanding of the cellular, molecular and immunologic biology of primary and disseminated prostate cancer. It is this body of new information, combined with advances in imaging techniques and prostate cancer tumor markers, that prompted the need for an in-depth assessment of bone metastasis of prostate cancer. Accordingly, on December 12, 1990, a group of basic and clinical investigators from Japan and the United States convened in Gotenba, Japan, to hold the first conference devoted solely to the basic biology and clinical aspects of bone metastases originating from prostate cancer. The cross-fertilization of ideas that was fostered through in-depth discussion of technological advances among various basic and clinical disciplines not only further advanced our understanding of prostate metastases to the bone, but suggested approaches for precise quantitative assessment of these lesions and their treatment.

I. Prostatic Cancer Bone Metastasis: An International Perspective.- Clinical Dilemmas and Problems in Assessing Prostatic Metastasis to Bone: The Scientific Challenge.- Comparative Study of Prostatic Carcinoma Bone Metastasis among Japanese in Japan and Japanese Americans and Whites in Hawaii.- Prostate Cancer in the United States and Japan.- Analysis of Survival of Prostate Cancer Patients in Japan and the USA.- II. Biology.- The Cellular Basis for Prostate Cancer Metastasis.- Cytogenetic and Molecular Genetic Aspects of Human Prostate Cancer: Primary and Metastatic.- Hemodynamics of Prostate Bone Metastases.- Role of the Vertebral Venous System in Metastatic Spread of Cancer Cells to the Bone.- Clinical Significance of the Vertebral Vein in Prostate Cancer Metastasis.- Effects of Various Growth Factors on a Chondrocyte Differentiation Model.- Potential Role of HBGF (FGF) and TGF-Beta on Prostate Growth.- Hormone Refractory Prostatic Cancer: The Role of Radiolabelled Diphosphonates and Growth Factor Inhibitors.- III. Models.- Localization of Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor (bFGF) in a Metastatic Cell Line (AT-3) Established from the Dunning Prostatic Carcinoma of Rat: Application of a Specific Monoclonal Antibody.- Use of a Reconstituted Basement Membrane to Study the Invasiveness of Tumor Cells.- Animal Prostate Carcinoma Models: Limited Potential for Vertebral Metastasis.- A Model for Studies on Human Prostatic Carcinoma.- IV. Pathology.- Studies on the Pathogenesis of Osteoblastic Metastases by Prostate Cancer.- Analysis of Bone Metastasis of Prostatic Adenocarcinoma in 137 Autopsy Cases.- Nucleolar Organizer Regions in Prostate Cancer.- Flow Cytometric Analysis of Prostatic Carcinoma with and without Bone Marrow Metastasis.- V. Evaluation.- Evaluation of the Response of Bone Metastases to Therapy.- Computed Tomographic Evaluation of Bone Metastases in Prostatic Cancer Patients.- Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Bone Metastases.- Bone Marrow MRI in Prostate Cancer.- Bone Mineral Density for Patients with Bone Metastasis of Prostate Cancer: A Preliminary Report.- Quantification of Changes in Bone Scans of Patients with Osseous Metastases of Prostatic Carcinoma.- The Usefulness of Serum Acid Phosphatase in Monitoring Patients with Advanced Prostate Carcinoma.- VI. Treatment.- Radiation Treatment of Prostate Bone Metastases and the Biological Considerations.- Clinical Course of Bone Metastasis from Prostatic Cancer Following Endocrine Therapy: Examination with Bone X-Ray.- Palliative Radiotherapy of Bone Metastasis.- Clinical Study of Bone-Related Relapse in Prostate Carcinoma.- Surgical Treatment of Metastatic Tumors of Long Bones and the Spine.- Hormone Therapy of Prostatic Bone Metastases.