Detection of colonic cells in peripheral blood of colorectal cancer patients by means of reverse transcriptase and polymerase chain reaction

Detection of circulating tumor cells in patients with gastrointestinal tract cancer using RT-PCR and its clinical implications

“…The tumor, node, metastases system (TNM) classification was used for gastric cancer and Dukes' classification for colorectal carcinoma. In this study, patients with distant metastasis were excluded from the beginning, because several reports have demonstrated that CEA mRNA positivity significantly correlates with the presence of distant metastasis, similar to our previous study (Mori et al, 1998;Castells et al, 1998;Noh et al, 1999). All patients who had undergone curative surgery followed postoperative pathological staging.…”

“…But it is still uncertain of its clinical relevance, because a relatively high proportion of non-metastatic gastrointestinal cancer patients was also positive for CEA mRNA (Mori et al, 1996;Mori et al, 1998;Castells et al, 1998). In our previous study, circulating tumor cells were also detected in both EGC (33.3%) and AGC (18.8%) and in distant metastatic disease (100%) (Noh et al, 1999).…”

“…Most of the available data related to the CEA mRNA detection indicate that the presence of circulating tumor cells correlates with the presence of distant metastasis (Funaki et al, 1996;Mori et al, 1996;Jonas et al, 1996;Mori et al, 1998;Castells et al, 1998) and is expected to be associated with a poor prognosis (Hardingham et al, 1995;Mori et al, 1998). But it is still uncertain of its clinical relevance, because a relatively high proportion of non-metastatic gastrointestinal cancer patients was also positive for CEA mRNA (Mori et al, 1996;Mori et al, 1998;Castells et al, 1998).…”

“…Among the target genes of this aim for RT-PCR, CEA mRNA seems to be the most frequently used for the detection in the blood of patients with gastrointestinal carcinomas (Funaki et al, 1996;Mori et al, 1996;Jonas et al, 1996;Mori et al, 1998;Castells et al, 1998), since it is expressed in almost all epithelial cells, including cancer cells, but not in nonepithelial cells (Shively and Beatty, 1985).…”

Prognostic significance of reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction measurement of carcinoembryonic antigen mRNA levels in tumor drainage blood and peripheral blood of patients with colorectal carcinoma

“…The sensitivity of our RT-PCR assay was 1 tumor cell per 10 6 normal mononuclear cells and, thus, was within the standard range. 4 -6,15 It has been reported that colorectal carcinoma cells were detected in 17.0 -41.1% of peripheral blood samples [5][6][7]23 and in 42% of tumor drainage blood samples. 24 In the current study, the detection rates of tumor cells in peripheral blood and tumor drainage blood were 34% and 68%, respectively, and were consistent with previous reports.…”