Circulating endothelial cells as biomarkers of prostate cancer

Abstract

Prostate cancer has a wide spectrum of biological aggressiveness, and where an individual tumor lies within this spectrum can be difficult to characterize at diagnosis. The degree of tumor vascularization in prostate cancer correlates with disease progression and, thus, markers of angiogenesis are potential indicators of clinical outcome. Identification of improved prognostic markers would have a substantial effect on patient outcomes. Such markers would also be invaluable in assessments of the effectiveness of experimental chemotherapeutic regimens and antiangiogenic drugs that are currently under investigation. Bone-marrow-derived circulating endothelial progenitors (CEPs) and circulating ..