Ovarian tumor cell detection in peripheral blood progenitor cells harvests by RT-PCR.
BACKGROUND
To evaluate the frequency of tumor cell contamination in autologous peripheral-blood progenitor cells from patients with ovarian cancer, and to determine the impact of infusing such cells on relapses after high-dose chemotherapy.


METHODS
Seventy-three samples of peripheral-blood progenitor cells from 24 ovarian cancer patients were studied for contaminated tumor cells by cytokeratin 7 and cytokeratin 20 reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction.


RESULTS
Tumor cell contamination in peripheral-blood progenitor cells was detected in 11 of 24 patients (46%) and, among these, in four of 11 patients who received transplantations of peripheral-blood progenitor cells. There was no trend towards longer relapse-free survival in patients infused with cytokeratin-negative peripheral-blood progenitor cells as compared with positive ones. Interestingly, two of four patients who received transplantations of peripheral-blood progenitor cells containing tumor cells were free from progression at 20 and 41 months after transplantation.


CONCLUSIONS
Tumor cell contamination of peripheral-blood progenitor cells was frequently noted by transcriptase polymerase chain reaction in patients with ovarian cancer. The biological and clinical significance of this finding remains to be elucidated.
Kurata
Hitoshi
H
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Niigata University, Japan. tounin@med.niigata-u.ac.jp
Takakuwa
Koich
K
Tsuneki
Ikunosuke
I
Aoki
Yoichi
Y
Tanaka
Kenichi
K
D000328:Adult; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage; D017931:DNA Primers; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D007633:Keratins / Q000235:genetics; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology*; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D017931:DNA Primers; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D007633:Keratins