Detection of bone marrow micrometastases by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in patients with early breast cancer Erken evre meme kanserinde revers transkriptaz polimeraz zincir reaksiyonu (RT-PCR) tekniǧi ile kemik iliǧi mikrometastazlarinin araştirilmasi

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of a molecular assay by investigating cytokeratin 19 (CK-19) and DF3 gene expressions in detection of occult cancer cells in bone marrow in patients with breast cancer. Methods: Transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays were carried out for the detection of CK19 and DF3 mRNA transcripts in bone marrow samples of 28 clinically axillary negative patients with early breast cancer. Results: Median age of patients was 47.5 (range, 32-86). Due to the high false positivity rote of the CK19-RT-PCR assay, and negative findings by the DF3-RT-PCR assay in bone marrow samples of patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia as negative controls, DF3 expression was tested in further RT-PCR assays. Eighteen patients (64%) were found to harbor DF3-positivity in bone marrow samples. No statistically significant associations could be found between DF3-positivity and other parameters including stage, tumor size (2 cm), axillary involvement, ER/PR positivity, and high histologic or nuclear grade. Conclusion: Our results suggest that testing DF3 expression by RT-PCR technique seems to be a reliable method in detection of micrometastatic cells in bone marrow in patients with early breast cancer because of its high specificity.