The Study of Monitoring Breast Cancer Blood Micrometastasis by Detection of CK19mRNA

Objective: To study the probability of micrometastasis in patients with breast cancer at different period by RT-PCR method. Methods: The expression of CK19mRNA was detected by RT-PCR in 60 cases of breast cancer.30 patients with benign breast diseases and 30 healthy women were taken as control. Results: The positive rate of CK19mRNA in 60 cases with breast cancer was 90.0%(54/60)before operation,31.7%(19/60) after post-operative comprehensive treatment and 38.3%(23/60) after following up 6-8 months respectively.In the control group,the positive rate of CK19mRNA was 3.3%(1/30) of the 30 patients with benign breast diseases.CK19mRNA was negative in the 30 healthy women.There was significant difference between the study group and the control group(P0.01).No significant difference was detected between the group which received post-operative comprehensive treatment and the group which was followed up for 6-8 months(P0.05).The positive rate of CK19mRNA in patients with and without lymph node metastasis was 97.5%(39/40)and 75.0%(15/20) respectively.The difference was significant(P0.05). Conclusion: CK19RT-PCR may be useful in early detection of blood micrometastasis in breast cancer.It may play a role in diagnosis,treatment and prognosis of breast cacer.