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Compared with other major epithelial neoplasms, advanced prostate cancer is less amenable to assessment using standard Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) scores. Moreover, reproducibly evaluating changes in bone metastases over time is difficult, and use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels as a surrogate marker for survival has not been prospectively validated. However, results from the recent IMMC38 trial showed that circulating tumor cell (CTC) count might be useful in predicting survival in patients with advanced disease (JW Oncol Hematol Nov 10 2008).
To further investigate CTC count as a prognostic marker in patients with prostate cancer, an international group of investigators reassessed data from 164 patients …