Table 2.

Principal prostate-specific markers for PCR use.

Tumor markers	Correlation with disease pathology	Correlation with clinical stage	Correlation with disease progression	References
PSA	Predominantly prostate specific, androgen dependent, increased in well-differentiated tumor cells	Increasing tumor grade	Extraprostatic extension, tumor invasion, surgical failure, biochemical recurrence	(135,149,172–178)
PSMA	Highly prostate specific, downregulated by androgens, increased in poorly differentiated tumor cells	Pathological stage	Extracapsular extension	(137,164,175–176, 179–181)
PSCA	Largely prostate specific, overexpressed in advanced, poorly differentiated, androgen independent and metastatic tumors	Increasing Gleason score and tumor stage	Extraprostatic extension, increased risk of biochemical recurrence, lower disease-progression–free survival	(96,99,183–187)
CK19	Specific for all tumor cells of epithelial origin	Presence of distant metastases	Poor clinical outcome, distant metastases	(192,193)
PTHrP	Increased in poorly differentiated tumor cells	Increasing tumor grade	Bone metastases, tumor invasiveness and metastatic potential	(127–132)