Loading...
Recent findings in breast cancer research have shown that tumor cell dissemination occurs early in disease course and that dormant disseminated tumor cells might be activated by signals from the microenvironment (Cancer Cell 2008; 13:58). These observations could be highly relevant to prostate cancer, given the wide range of heterogeneity seen in disease progression. To explore the predictive utility of metastatic precursor cells, German investigators performed a prospective analysis of cytokeratin positive (CK+) cells in the bone marrow of prostate cancer patients.
Bone marrow aspirates were evaluated for CK+ cells from 244 men immediately before they underwent radical prostatectomy (pre-op group) and from 258 men 6 months after radical pro…