Detection of lymph node micrometastases with RT-PCR in gastric cancer

Objectives To deection the emergence that lymph node that the result of the routine pathology of gastric cancer checks is negative micrometastases and its relation with other clinical index.Methods To utilize the method of reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) to test 68 CEA mRNA's gene expression and compare the detection sensitiveness between RT-PCR and immunohistochemical staining(IHC).Results The method of CEA mRNA RT-PCR is higly sensitive,could detection 1/10 6 transformed cancer cell,detection 68 lymph node from 19 patient of gastric cancer.IHC positive rate is 28%(19/68),RT-PCR positive rate is 57%(39/68),and the difference between the two groups is very apparent(P0.01);RT-PCR positive rate is closely related with clinical index,and increase as the disease develops.Conclusions CEA mRNA RT-PCR is more highly sensitive than IHC and can predict the lymph node micrometastases of gastric cancer.