Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the work of the clinical research nurses Joan Kehoe and Deirdre Hyland for their work in the collection of patient samples and clinical data. This work was generously supported by grants from Enterprise Ireland (PC/2008/0366) to SH, the Health Research Board (HRA_POR/ 2010/116) to JHMP and the Irish Cancer Society (CRF10KIJ) to GK. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.