Fig. 5.

CTCs isolated from prostate cancer patient blood contain intact RNA for RNA sequencing and Droplet Digital PCR after whole blood preservation. a RIN values of CTCs isolated from fresh and cold-stored blood (total 15 blood draws from 8 independent patients). b Scaled heatmap of log2-transformed normalized reads (RPMs) for four prostate cancer patients. For patient #3, data are available from three different draw dates stored for different durations (24, 48, and 72 h; denoted #3.1, #3.2, and #3.3, respectively). Statistical analysis comparing fresh vs. cold-stored blood (6 blood draws) found no significant differences in the mean RPMs for any of the 40 genes depicted in b, except for KRT18 (p = 0.037, paired t-test). c The mRNA copy number of AR-V7 detected by Droplet Digital PCR (expressed as per mL of blood processed). Box-and-whiskers plots show median, interquartile range, maxima, and minima