About the Authors

Heather H. Cheng

Contributed equally to this work with: Heather H. Cheng, Patrick S. Mitchell

Affiliations Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Patrick S. Mitchell

Contributed equally to this work with: Heather H. Cheng, Patrick S. Mitchell

Current address: Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America; Division of Basic Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Affiliation Human Biology Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Evan M. Kroh

Affiliation Human Biology Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Alexander E. Dowell

Affiliation Department of Urology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Lisly Chéry

Affiliation Department of Urology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Javed Siddiqui

Affiliations Michigan Center for Translational Pathology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America, Department of Pathology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America

Peter S. Nelson

Affiliations Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, Human Biology Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Robert L. Vessella

Affiliations Department of Urology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Beatrice S. Knudsen

Current address: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Affiliation Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Arul M. Chinnaiyan

Affiliations Michigan Center for Translational Pathology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America, Department of Urology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America, Bioinformatics Program, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America

Kenneth J. Pienta

Affiliation Departments of Urology, Oncology and Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Colm Morrissey

Affiliation Department of Urology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Muneesh Tewari

mtewari@fhcrc.org

Affiliations Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, Human Biology Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Competing Interests

Muneesh Tewari is a named inventor on the pending patent application entitled, “Use of Extracellular RNA to Measure Disease,” #12/993828. H.H.C., P.S.M., E.M.K., A.E.D., L.C., J.S., P.S.N., B.S.K., R.L.V., A.M.C., K.J.P., and C.M. declare no competing interests. The authors confirm that this does not alter their adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: PSM PSN RLV CM MT. Performed the experiments: PSM EMK AED CM. Analyzed the data: HHC PSM MT. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AED LC JS PSN RLV BSK AMC KJP CM MT. Wrote the paper: HHC PSM MT.