Evaluation of sensitivity and specificity of GA733-2, MUC1-, CEA- and CK19-RT-PCT techniques for detection of tumour cells in bone marrow and leukapheresis products of patients with breast cancer.
Xy. Zhong et al., Evaluation of sensitivity and specificity of GA733-2, MUC1-, CEA- and CK19-RT-PCT techniques for detection of tumour cells in bone marrow and leukapheresis products of patients with breast cancer., TUMORDIAGN, 20(5), 1999, pp. 144-152
We analysed sensitivity and specificity of reverse transcriptase polymerase
chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique for detection of tumour cells in bone ma
rrow (BM) and leukapheresis products (LP) of patients with breast cancer. W
e used the GA733-2-, MUC1, CEA and cytokeratin 19 (CK 19), all of which hav
e been successfully used in immunocytochemical diagnostics. in control expe
riments for analysis of specificity performed on BM and peripheral blood (P
B) from healthy donors, GA733-2-mRNA were found in 8 out of 8 BM samples an
d in 16 out of 40 PB samples. MUC1-mRNA were detected in 7 out of 8 BM samp
les and in 28 out of 40 PB samples. No CEA-mRNA(n = 48) and CK19-mRNA-posit
ive samples (N = 71) were detected in these BM and PB. The sensitivity was
assessed by means of mixing known amounts of tumour cells into 10(7) mononu
clear cells. The CK19-RT-PCR technique allowed reproducible detection of 10
breast tumour cells per 10(7) mononuclear cells. The highest sensitivity b
y this assay was 1 tumour cell per 10(7) mononuclear cells. The CEA-RT-PCR
technique allowed detection of 1-10 colon cancer cells and 10-100 breast ca
ncer cells in 10(7) normal cells. The heterogenous expression of CEA in the
breast cancer cells limited the sensitivity of this assay. By the clinical
application, the CK19-mRNA was detected in 47 out of 115 (40.87%) BM sampl
es from breast cancer patients in the primary operation and in 7 out of 29
(24.13%) LP samples from breast cancer patients who received high-doses che
motherapy. We compared RT-PCR technique with immunocytochemical staining. I
t is suggested that the CK19-RT-PCR technique is a reliable method for the
detection of tumour cells in BM and LP with a sensitivity of one tumour cel
l per 10(6) normal cells.