Evaluation of tyrosinase mRNA as a tumor marker in the blood of melanoma patients.

Abstract

Using a density gradient method to process the blood samples resulted in a higher detection rate of tyrosinase mRNA than extracting the RNA from the whole blood. However, the relatively low sensitivity in patients with disseminated and progressive disease compared with other reports suggests that tyrosinase mRNA may be of limited value in the management of malignant melanoma.

Epithelial tumour cell detection and the unsolved problems of nested RT-PCR: a new sensitive one step method without false positive results

“…15,16 Controversial results have been also reported in non-epithelial solid tumours. 17,18 We have developed a highly specific, less time consuming and technically simpler RT-PCR assay capable of detecting epithelial cells that would otherwise go undetected by presently available ICC methods.…”

Relationship between erb-B2 mRNA Expression in Blood and Tissue of Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Breast Cancer Patients and Clinicopathological Characteristics of the Tumors

“…In the other hand, immunohistochemical negative blood sample (26%) and immunohistochemical negative tissue sample (48%) was identified by RT-PCR, in our study. False positive results using RT-PCR assays can be justify by the possibility of illegitimate transcription processes or the detection of specific transcripts in nonspecific cells (Pittman et al, 1996;Jung et al, 1997).…”

Limitations of the nested reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction on tyrosinase for the detection of malignant melanoma micrometastases in lymph nodes

“…The initial report led to a number of more detailed investigations regarding the presence of tyrosinase RNA in peripheral blood of melanoma patients (Brossart et al, 1995;Foss et al, 1995;Hoon et al, 1995;Buzaid and Balch, 1996;Mellado et al, 1996;Gläser et al, 1997;Jung et al, 1997;Reinhold et al, 1997;Curry et al, 1998;Farthmann et al, 1998;Ghossein et al 1998;Palmieri et al, 1999;De Vries et al, 1999). The published tyrosinase mRNA RT-PCR sensitivities in peripheral blood among stage III melanoma patients range from 0% to 100%.…”

“…Among these techniques the nested RT-PCR is the most sensitive method: in spike experiments the detection limit ranges from 1 to 10 tumour cells in 10 7 peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) (Hoon et al, 1995;Gläser et al, 1997;Jung et al, 1997;Farthmann et al, 1998;Palmieri et al, 1999), whereas for immunohistochemistry the detection limit is 1 tumour cell in 10 5 normal cells (Hatta et al, 1998).…”

“…Although clinical parameters such as lymph node involvement and thickness of the tumour are helpful, other diagnostic tools are urgently needed to allow for optimal prediction of the clinical course and choice of treatment. For this purpose efforts have been made to detect micrometastases in blood (Brossart et al, 1995;Foss et al, 1995;Hoon et al, 1995;Buzaid and Balch 1996;Mellado et al, 1996;Gläser et al, 1997;Jung et al, 1997;Reinhold et al, 1997;Farthmann et al, 1998;Ghossein et al, 1998;Curry et al, 1998;De Vries et al, 1999;Palmieri et al, 1999) and in the regional lymph nodes by immunohistochemistry or reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) (Battyani et al, 1993;Wang et al, 1994;Rankin, 1996;Van der Velde-Zimmermann et al, 1996;Blaheta et al, 1998;Goydos et al, 1998;Hatta et al, 1998;Bieligk et al, 1999).…”