Review Article
Cellular Plasticity in Prostate Cancer Bone Metastasis
Table 1
Descriptive characteristics of included studies.
| Year of publication | Number of studies |
| 1999 | 1 | 2000 | 1 | 2002 | 3 | 2004 | 1 | 2005 | 1 | 2008 | 3 | 2010 | 3 | 2011 | 3 | 2012 | 2 | 2013 | 1 |
| Sample size | Median (range) |
| Number of BM specimens | 17 (2–184) | Number of primary PC specimens | 22 (6–112) | Number of nonskeletal specimens | 23 (7–97) |
| Tissue comparisons | Number of studies |
| Studies that used matched samples | 7 | Comparisons between BM and primary PC | 14 | Comparisons between BM and nonskeletal metastases | 7 | Comparisons between different BM tissues | 2 |
| Markers analysed | Number of studies |
| Stem cell markers | 8 | EMT/MET markers | 11 |
| Main method of marker detection | Number of studies |
| Immunohistochemistry (IHC) | 18 | In situ hybridisation (ISH) | 1 |
| Tumour grade and treatment status | Number of studies |
| Studies that reported tumour grade | 12 | Studies that reported treatment status | 9 |
| Criteria used to score expression | Number of studies |
| Pattern of distribution of staining across cell | 6 | Percentage of positive cells in each specimen | 5 | Staining intensity scoring | 2 | Staining intensity multiplied by % of positive cells | 5 | Quantitative analysis of % of positive staining areas using Image Pro Plus 6.2 software | 1 | Did not report a scoring method | 2 |
| Reporting of results | Number of studies |
| Statistical analysis of differential expression | 11 |
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Note: BM: bone metastasis.
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