title: An ultrasensitive tumor enriched flow-cytometric assay for detection of isolated tumor cells in bone marrow of patients with breast cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  An ultrasensitive tumor enriched flow-cytometric assay was used to determine its feasibility in detection of isolated tumor cells (ITC) in bone marrow (BM) of patients with breast cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Epithelial cells were removed by magnetic microbeads conjugated with an anti-cytokeratin 7/8 monoclonal antibody to enrich tumor cells in BM samples. A specific gate for MCF-7 breast cancer cells (gate(MCF-7 cells)) was also taken into consideration in addition to a gate including all enriched BM cells (gate(enriched BM cells)) in flow-cytometric analysis to enhance the specificity of the method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nineteen patients with stage I/II were evaluated. Ten patients (53%) were found to have cytokeratin positive (CK(+)) cells according to the gate(enriched BM cells) whereas 6 patients (32%) had CK(+) cells when the gate(MCF-7 cells) was taken into account.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  New strategies in nonmorphological ultrasensitive techniques might be useful to categorize patients with ITCs having different tumor morphology and characteristics.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey. neslicab@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Neslihan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cabioglu
authors.forename: Abdullah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Igci
authors.forename: Engin O
authors.initials: EO
authors.lastname: Yildirim
authors.forename: Esin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Aktas
authors.forename: Sema
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bilgic
authors.forename: Ekrem
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yavuz
authors.forename: Mahmut
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muslumanoglu
authors.forename: Yavuz
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bozfakioglu
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kecer
authors.forename: Vahit
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ozmen
authors.forename: Gunnur
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Deniz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D019046:Bone Marrow Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D018189:Immunomagnetic Separation; D007633:Keratins / Q000032:analysis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D007633:Keratins