title: DNA fingerprints provide a patient-specific breast cancer marker.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Detection of systemic breast cancer recurrence is limited by lack of universally expressed tumor cell markers. We hypothesized that a test that detects genetic alterations specific to breast cancer cells of an individual patient would provide a superior cancer marker.
  
  
  METHODS
  DNA was extracted from blood, primary tumor, and axillary lymph nodes of 33 breast cancer patients and normal breast tissue of 12 control patients. A patient's genome was scanned by PCR amplification between Alu sequences. A DNA fingerprint of approximately 17-40 bands was produced for comparison between normal blood and sampled tissues.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 7 stage I, 18 stage II, 7 stage III, and 1 stage IV breast cancer cases; 33 of 33 cancer cases showed DNA fingerprint differences between blood and primary tumor (P <.0001). This test predicted 100% of positive nodes. No false-negatives occurred, and in two cases malignancy was detected in histologically negative nodes. Three of the 12 controls showed a single similar band change.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  DNA fingerprinting is a method for detecting and characterizing genetic alterations specific to an individual patient's primary tumor in 100% of cases tested. These specific changes were also identified in 100% of positive nodes, proving the capacity of the test to detect metastases.
authors.affiliation: Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Genertal Surgery, Oregon Health & Science University, 3181 S. W. Sam Jackson Park Road, Mail Code L223A, Portland, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: SuEllen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Toth-Fejel
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Muller
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ham
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Esvelt
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dumas
authors.forename: Kristine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Calhoun
authors.forename: Rodney
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pommier
mesh_terms: D020087:Alu Elements / Q000235:genetics; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor