Book excerpt: Chronic Prostatitis is a common and debilitating condition affecting 5-12% of men worldwide. The most common form is category III, or Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome. Cutting-edge clinical research has led to advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of prostatitis, a group of conditions that is at once extremely common, poorly understood, inadequately treated and under-researched. In Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome, the author provides today’s most current information covering the four categories of prostatitis (acute, chronic bacterial, CPPS and asymptomatic inflammation). A diverse international group of contributors that includes urologists (academic, primary care and front line private practice), scientists, psychologists, and pain specialists from the National Institutes of Health provide the reader with novel approaches to helping their patients. The chapters in this important new work cover general evaluation of the prostatitis patient, the approach to acute prostatitis, chronic bacterial prostatitis and chronic pelvic pain syndrome, evidence behind individual therapies and ancillary topics such as erectile dysfunction, infertility, the link between chronic prostatitis and prostate cancer, male interstitial cystitis and the potential etiologic role of calcifying nanoparticles. Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome offers novel approaches to diagnosing this condition as well as providing ways in which to ease the suffering of the patient with prostatitis.