Safety and Efficacy of Radial EBUS for the Investigation of Peripheral Pulmonary Lesions in Patients With Advanced COPD.

Background: Peripheral pulmonary lesion (PPL) is a common scenario in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and represents a high risk of malignancy. Severe COPD is associated with higher complication rates following percutaneous biopsy, and routine bronchoscopy. Safety and diagnostic performance of radial endobronchial ultrasound bronchoscopy (R-EBUS) in patients with advanced COPD has not been previously assessed.

Circulating endothelial cells as biomarkers of prostate cancer.

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.