Detection of circulating tumor cells in carcinoma patients by a novel epidermal growth factor receptor reverse transcription-PCR assay.

摘要: The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is overexpressed in 50–70% of human primary breast, lung, and colon carcinomas, whereas it not usually expressed hematopoietic cells. We developed a novel reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR)-Southern blot assay for the detection of circulating, EGFR mRNA-expressing tumor cells carcinoma patients. The was set up by increasing amount of cDNA step in the PCR reaction. The highest sensitivity specificity were found when using 800 ng Peripheral blood samples from 91 patients with either (38), lung (30), or breast (23) carcinomas from 38 healthy volunteers analyzed. EGFR transcripts found 44 75 (59%) metastatic carcinoma 4 (10.5%) donors ( P < 0.001; χ 2 test). expression EGFR, cytokeratin 19, and carcinoembryonic antigen mRNA samples with metastatic compared. 19, and carcinoembryonic transcripts 8 11 (73%), 3 of 11 (27%), 5 (45%) patients, respectively. Furthermore, two of seven (29%) Dukes’ B five nine (55%) C colon carcinoma to express peripheral blood. All that peripheral blood protein corresponding primary carcinoma, as assessed immunohistochemistry. These data suggest we highly specific and sensitive technique detect circulating patients affected different types.