DNA fingerprints provide a patient-specific breast cancer marker.
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.
Toth-Fejel
SuEllen
S
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.
Muller
Patrick
P
Ham
Bruce
B
Esvelt
Kevin
K
Dumas
Nicole
N
Calhoun
Kristine
K
Pommier
Rodney
R
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
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor