Disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow of patients with transitional cell carcinoma: immunocytochemical detection and correlation with established prognostic indicators.
OBJECTIVE
Previous investigations have demonstrated the prognostic value of disseminated cytokeratin positive cells in bone marrow of patients with breast, gastric, colon and prostate cancer. We evaluated the potential of an immunocytochemical assay, using a monoclonal antibody against cytokeratin 18 (CK 18), for the detection of disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow aspirates of patients with transitional cell carcinoma.


METHODS
Bone marrow aspiration was performed preoperatively on 128 patients with transitional cell carcinoma of various stages and on 27 controls with nonmalignant disease. Cytospin preparations of mononuclear bone marrow cells were incubated with a monoclonal anti-CK 18 antibody and stained using the alkaline phosphatase anti-alkaline phosphatase technique.


RESULTS
Of the patients with transitional cell carcinoma 29.7% and none of the controls had a CK 18 positive bone marrow result. A significant correlation between the incidence of CK 18 positive cells in bone marrow and invasive transitional cell carcinoma (p <0.01), lymph node involvement (p <0.01), medium/high grade transitional cell carcinoma (p <0.01) and tumor progression in recurrent transitional cell carcinoma (p <0.05) was demonstrated. Furthermore, the mean number of CK 18 positive cells in bone marrow aspirates of patients with stage M+ and/or N+ disease was nearly 3 times as high as that of patients without clinically evident metastatic disease (10.4 versus 3.8 CK 18 positive cells per patient).


CONCLUSIONS
A significant correlation between the incidence of CK 18 positive bone marrow results in patients with transitional cell carcinoma and established risk factors could be demonstrated in our study. Further prospective followup studies should be performed to determine the prognostic value of these findings.
Hofmann
Thomas
T
Department of Urology, Klinikum Grosshadern, Luwig-Maximilians University of Munich and Staedtisches Krankenhaus Muenchen-Bogenhausen, Munich, Germany.
Riesenberg
Rainer
R
Buchner
Alexander
A
Zimmermann
Wolfgang
W
Hofstetter
Alfons
A
Oberneder
Ralph
R
D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology; D019046:Bone Marrow Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D002295:Carcinoma, Transitional Cell / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007633:Keratins / Q000032:analysis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D007633:Keratins