Detection of micrometastases in bone marrow of patients with breast cancer and its clinical significance

Objective To detect micrometastases in bone marrow of patients with breast cancer,and to study the relationship between micrometastases and clinical and histopathologic features.Methods The expression of CK19 mRNA in bone marrow of patients with breast cancer was detected by using RT-PCR.Results The positive expression rate of CK19 mRNA in bone marrow of 102 patients with breast cancer was 56.9%.The incidence of BM micrometastases were more greatly increased in patients with T 2～3tumors than T 1 (P0.005) and more increased in patients with stageⅡ-Ⅳ than stage Ⅰ(P0.05).The expression of CK19 in the BM of breast cancer with grade Ⅰ was lower than that of grade Ⅱ or Ⅲ.The expression of CK19 in patients with positive metastases of axillary lymph node was not more than that with negative axillary lymph node.No relationships were found between CK19 expression and age,menopausal status as well as tumor types.Conclusion BM micrometastases in breast cancer were related to some clinohistopathologic features.The detection of BM micrometastases can predict the prognosis of breast cancer patients.