title: CTCs in primary breast cancer (II).
abstract: CTCs can be detected by real-time RT-PCR for CK19 mRNA in the blood of early breast cancer patients before the start and after the completion of adjuvant chemotherapy and during adjuvant hormonal therapy and the follow-up. Patients with CK19 mRNA-positive cells both before and after chemotherapy have the worst prognosis with shorter disease-free and overall survival. The same is true for patients who have detectable CK19 mRNA-positive cells despite adjuvant tamoxifen while persistent detection during the follow-up predicts for late disease relapse. Thus CTC monitoring offers the opportunity to evaluate the efficacy of adjuvant therapy and identify those patients who are more likely to benefit from secondary adjuvant treatments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital of Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Saloustros
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mavroudis
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053539:Keratin-19 / Q000032:analysis; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating; D011379:Prognosis; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D053539:Keratin-19