Follow-up study of peripheral blood carcinoembryonic antigen mRNA using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction as an early marker of clinical recurrence in patients with curatively resected gastric cancer.
In this study, we evaluated the clinical significance of detecting carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) mRNA in the peripheral blood samples of patients with gastric cancer. We analyzed the peripheral blood of 46 patients with gastric cancer who had undergone curative resection. The presence of CEA mRNA was serially monitored using a CEA-specific reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) every 2 months. The clinical recurrence rates according to category were as follows: 100% (3 of 3) in the positive conversion, 0% (0 of 18) in the negative conversion, 50% (3 of 6) in the always-positive, and 10.5% (2 of 19) in the always-negative category. The recurrence rate was 66.7% (6 of 9) in the positive group and 5.4% (2 of 37) in the negative group (P < or =0.00022). Multiple logistic regression analysis demonstrated that only group variable had a significant effect on clinical recurrence (P = 0.015). We conclude that RT-PCR analysis of CEA mRNA in the peripheral blood seems to be a promising tool for the early detection of micrometastatic circulating tumor cells in gastric carcinoma patients and that it can be useful used to identify patients at risk for recurring.
Seo
Jae Hong
JH
Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Oncology, College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul, Korea.
Choi
Chul Won
CW
Kim
Byung Soo
BS
Shin
Sang Won
SW
Kim
Yeul Hong
YH
Kim
Jae Sun
JS
Lee
Sang Woo
SW
Choi
Jae Hyun
JH
Park
Yung Tae
YT
Mok
Young Jae
YJ
Kim
Chong Suk
CS
Kim
Jun Suk
JS
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000097:blood*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000601:surgery
D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen; D012333:RNA, Messenger