Objective: The aim of this study was to develop an immunomagnetic/real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay and assess its clinical value for the molecular detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in peripheral blood of pancreatic cancer patients.
Methods: The presence of CTCs was evaluated in 34 pancreatic cancer patients before systemic therapy and in 40 healthy controls, through immunomagnetic enrichment, using the antibodies BM7 and VU1D9 [targeting mucin 1 and epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM), respectively], followed by real-time RT-PCR analysis of the genes KRT19, MUC1, EPCAM, CEACAM5 and BIRC5.
Results: The developed assay showed high specificity, as none of the healthy controls were found to be positive for the multimarker gene panel. CTCs were detected in 47.1% of the pancreatic cancer patients before the beginning of systemic treatment. Shorter median progression-free survival (PFS) was observed for patients who had at least one detectable tumor-associated transcript, compared with patients who were CTC negative. Median PFS time was 66.0 days [95% confidence interval (CI) 44.8–87.2] for patients with baseline CTC positivity and 138.0 days (95% CI 124.1–151.9) for CTC-negative patients (p = 0.01, log-rank test).
Conclusion: Our results suggest that in addition to the current prognostic methods, CTC analysis represents a potential complementary tool for prediction of outcome in pancreatic cancer patients. / Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG-geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:27513 |
Date | January 2012 |
Creators | de Albuquerque, Andreia, Kubisch, Ilja, Breier, Georg, Stamminger, Gudrun, Fersis, Nikos, Eichler, Astrid, Kaul, Sepp, Stölzel, Ulrich |
Publisher | Karger |
Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
Source | Oncology 2012;82:3–10, ISSN: 0030-2414 |
Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
Relation | 10.1159/000335479 |
Page generated in 0.0016 seconds