[Value of diagnosing micrometastasis by nested RT-PCR in the peripheral blood and bone marrow in non-small cell lung cancer patients].
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the specificity, sensitivity and their clinical significance of detecting CK19 mRNA expression by nested RT-PCR for molecular diagnosis of micrometastasis in the peripheral blood and bone marrow of patients with non-small cell lung cancer.


METHODS
CK19 mRNA expression was detected by nested RT-PCR in peripheral blood and bone marrow samples from 59 lung cancer patients, with samples of 11 benign pulmonary lesion patients and 20 healthy adults as control.


RESULTS
The sensitivity of nested RT-PCR was 10(-6). The positive rates of micrometastasis were 33.89% (20/59) in peripheral blood and 22.03% (13/59) in bone marrow, with a highly positive correlation existing between the two groups (P < 0.05). The micrometastasis in peripheral blood and bone marrow was closely correlated with the pathological classification and cell differentiation (P < 0.05) and P-TNM stage (P < 0.01). No CK19 mRNA expression was found in the samples from patients with benign pulmonary lesion or healthy adult volunteers.


CONCLUSIONS
The peripheral blood and bone marrow from patients with non-small cell lung cancer possesses micrometastasis that can not be detected by common methods. Nested RT-PCR technique shows favorable specificity and sensitivity in detecting the condition with definite clinical prospects.
Zhou
Qing-hua
QH
Laboratory of Lung Cancer Molecular Biology, Cancer Center and Cancer Institute, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Gong
You-ling
YL
Qin
Yang
Y
Sun
Zhi-lin
ZL
Sun
Ze-fang
ZF
Liu
Lun-xu
LX
Li
Lu
L
Zhu
Wen
W
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D001853:Bone Marrow; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000556:secondary*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor