[Expression and clinical significance of cytokeratin 19 in bone marrow of patients with breast cancer].

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Breast cancer may undergo metastasis in early phase. Distant metastasis, especially bone metastasis, may influence prognosis of breast cancer patients. Bone marrow micrometastasis (BMM) is difficult to detect with routine methods. This study was designed to evaluate expression and clinical significance of cytokeratin 19 (CK19) in bone marrow of patients with breast cancer.

METHODS

Expression of CK19 mRNA in bone marrows of 65 breast cancer patients, 15 benign breast disease patients, and 8 healthy volunteers was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Correlation of CK19 mRNA expression to clinicopathologic features of the 65 breast cancer patients was analyzed.

RESULTS

Positive rate of CK19 mRNA was 33.8% in the 65 breast cancer patients, and 0 in both benign breast disease patients and healthy volunteers. Expression of CK19 mRNA was positively correlated with tumor size and clinical stage (P < 0.05), but was not related to age and lymph node status (P > 0.05). In addition, positive rate of CK19 mRNA was positively correlated with carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in peripheral blood (r=0.372, P=0.002).

CONCLUSIONS

CK19 mRNA may be used as a molecular marker to detect bone marrow micrometastasis in patients with breast cancer. The detection may help to select proper therapy and predict prognosis of breast cancer patients.