Expression of CK19 mRNA and CEA mRNA in peripheral blood of patients with lung cancer and its clinical significances

Objective To evaluate the clinical significances of CK19 mRNA and CEA mRNA expressed in peripheral blood of patients with lung cancer in detection of micrometastasis. Methods The CK19 mRNA and CEA mRNA were detected by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) in the peripheral blood of 67 patients with lung cancer and 37 healthy subjects. Results There were statistically significant differences in the frequency of CK19 mRNA and CEA mRNA expression between lung cancer patients and healthy controls (57.6% vs 2.7% and 52.2% vs 5.4%, P0.01). The combination of the two markers improved the diagnostic sensitivity to 76.1%. The positive rates of CK19 mRNA was significantly higher for stage Ⅲ and Ⅳ cancer than that for stageⅠ+Ⅱ (P0.01).The expression of CEA mRNA was related to the histological type. Conclusion CK19 mRNA and CEA mRNA in peripheral blood can be used as biological markers for micrometastases of lung cancer, the combination of two markers could improve the diagnostic sensitivity.