Figure 1
From: Mitochondrial and nuclear genomics and the emergence of personalized medicine
The cancerization field effect and prostate cancer. Real-time PCR can be used to identify underlying molecular alterations in normal-appearing tissues, thereby detecting the presence of malignant cells via a cancerization field effect. Though prostate needle biopsy cores may fail to collect a tumor sample, the chemical signature of the tumor cancerization field may be detected in these same samples, optimizing the biopsy procedure and the outcome for the patient [16, 17].