J Korean Med Sci.  2000 Apr;15(2):194-198. 10.3346/jkms.2000.15.2.194.

The detection of circulating breast cancer cells in peripheral blood by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction

• Bae JW
• Choi KH
• Kim HG
• Park SH

• KMID: 648123
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2000.15.2.194

Abstract

Some circulating cancer cells in the blood play a central role in the metastatic process and may have a major influence on patient progress. Their numbers can be very small and techniques for their detection need to be both sensitive and specific. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been successfully used to detect small numbers of tumor cells in cancer. We used a reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to detect circulating breast cancer cells in venous blood samples before operations and assessed cytokeratin-19 (CK-19) and cytokeratin-20 (CK-20) as target mRNA markers in the blood of healthy donors (n=6) and breast cancer patients (n=30) with American Joint Committee on Cancer stages 0 to IIIa. CK-19 mRNA was expressed in all blood samples of healthy donors and patients. But CK-20 was the only mRNA marker not detected in the blood from healthy donors. Seven of 30 (23%) venous blood isolates of breast cancer patients yielded a CK-20 mRNA with positive results. There was no correlating CK-20 mRNA expression with stage and axillary lymph node status. In conclusion, CK-19 showed no diagnostic value as a mRNA marker in the detection of circulating cancer cells by RT-PCR assay because this was expressed in the blood of healthy donors. CK-20 mRNA was an useful marker to detect circulating cancer cells in breast cancers.

Keyword

Breast Neoplasms; Keratin; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction

MeSH Terms

Breast Neoplasms/pathology*
Breast Neoplasms/genetics*
DNA Primers
Female
Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic
Genetic Markers
Human
Intermediate Filament Proteins/genetics
Keratin/genetics
Neoplasm Circulating Cells*
RNA, Messenger/analysis
RNA, Neoplasm/analysis*
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods*
Sensitivity and Specificity
beta 2-Microglobulin/genetics