Pantel K, Otte M
Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Therapy, University Hospital Eppendorf, Martinistrasse 52, D-20246 Hamburg, Germany.
Acta Med Austriaca Suppl. 2000;52:8-12.
Malignant tumors of epithelial tissue are the most common form of cancer and are responsible for the majority of cancer-related deaths in Western industrialized countries. As a result of progress in surgical treatment of these tumors lethality is linked increasingly with early metastasis, which is generally occult at the time of primary diagnosis. The decision as to whether systemic adjuvant therapy should be applied for secondary prevention of metastatic relapse following resection of the primary tumor is based solely on the statistical prognosis. For this reason the direct identification of minimal residual cancer is of particular importance. The studies described below demonstrate the utility of immunocytochemical and molecular analysis in the diagnosis and characterization of minimal residual cancer. For the first time these methods give access to this critical stage of tumor progression and also contribute to the development of new approaches to therapy aimed at preventing manifest metastasis.
上皮组织恶性肿瘤是最常见的癌症形式，在西方工业化国家，此类癌症导致的死亡占癌症相关死亡的大部分。由于这些肿瘤外科治疗取得进展，致死率越来越多地与早期转移相关，而早期转移在初次诊断时通常难以察觉。对于原发性肿瘤切除术后是否应采用全身辅助治疗以预防转移性复发的二次预防，完全基于统计学预后。因此，直接识别微小残留癌尤为重要。以下所述研究证明了免疫细胞化学和分子分析在微小残留癌诊断和特征描述中的效用。这些方法首次能够触及肿瘤进展的这一关键阶段，也有助于开发旨在预防明显转移的新治疗方法。
