The detection and isolation of viable prostate-specific antigen positive epithelial cells by enrichment: A comparison to standard prostate-specific antigen reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and its clinical relevance in prostate cancer

Immunomagnetic enrichment frequently detects epithelial, presumably malignant, cells in the peripheral blood and, especially, the bone marrow of patients with prostate cancer. Viable cells can be acquired for gene expression and phenotyping studies.