Lukyanchuk Vitaliy V, Friess Helmut, Kleeff Jorg, Osinsky Sergej P, Ayuni Erick, Candinas Daniel, Roggo Antoine
Department of Visceral and Transplantation Surgery, University of Bern, Inselspital, 3010 Bern, Switzerland.
Anticancer Res. 2003 May-Jun;23(3B):2711-6.
Detection of circulating tumor cells in blood may be an important diagnostic and prognostic factor in the management of tumor patients. The present study aimed to examine whether cytokeratin 20 (CK-20) and prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) are useful markers for the detection of disseminated cancer cells in the blood of tumor patients.
A nested RT-PCR assay was used to detect CK-20 and PSCA mRNA in blood samples from 18 healthy donors, 15 patients with non-malignant disease, 9 patients with benign tumors and 47 patients with malignant tumors (11 pancreatic carcinoma, 8 gastric cancer, 15 colorectal carcinoma and 13 miscellaneous tumors).
CK-20 expression was observed in the peripheral blood of 19 out of 47 (40.4%) patients with malignant tumors, 2 out of 9 (22.2%) patients with benign tumors and 3 out of 15 (20%) patients with non-tumor diseases. PSCA expression was present in the blood of 22 out of 47 (46.8%) patients with malignant tumors and particularly in 7 out of 11 (63.6%) patients with pancreatic cancer. CK-20 and PSCA expression was not observed in blood samples from healthy donors. There was a relationship between PSCA expression and tumor stage.
The present results demonstrate that it is possible to apply a simple and reliable method for the detection of circulating tumor cells based on CK-20 and PSCA RT-PCR assays.
检测血液中循环肿瘤细胞可能是肿瘤患者管理中的一个重要诊断和预后因素。本研究旨在探讨细胞角蛋白20（CK-20）和前列腺干细胞抗原（PSCA）是否为检测肿瘤患者血液中播散癌细胞的有用标志物。
采用巢式逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）检测18名健康供者、15名非恶性疾病患者、9名良性肿瘤患者和47名恶性肿瘤患者（11例胰腺癌、8例胃癌、15例结直肠癌和13例其他肿瘤）血液样本中的CK-20和PSCA mRNA。
47例恶性肿瘤患者中有19例（40.4%）外周血检测到CK-20表达，9例良性肿瘤患者中有2例（22.2%），15例非肿瘤疾病患者中有3例（20%）。47例恶性肿瘤患者中有22例（46.8%）血液中检测到PSCA表达，其中11例胰腺癌患者中有7例（63.6%）。健康供者血液样本中未检测到CK-20和PSCA表达。PSCA表达与肿瘤分期有关。
目前结果表明，基于CK-20和PSCA的RT-PCR检测方法有可能应用于一种简单可靠的循环肿瘤细胞检测方法。
