Detection of CEA mRNA in Peripheral Blood of Patients with Gastric Cancer and its Clinical Significance

Objective To evaluate the clinical significance of the expression of Carcinoembryonic Antigen mRNA(CEA mRNA) in peripheral blood of patients with gastric cancer.Methods Nested RT PCR technique was used to detect CEA mRNA in peripheral blood of 42 patients with gastric cancers before and after tumor resection.The serum CEA was determined by Chemiluminescence reaction.The SGC 7901 gastric cancer cell line and peripheral blood cells from the healthy people were used as positive and negative control,respectively.Results The positive rate of CEA mRNA in the patients with gastric cancers was higher after tumor resection than that before operation(56.0% V.s 28.0%, P =0.039).The expression of CEA mRNA in peripheral blood was significantly correlated with liver metastasis.However,there was no significant correlation between CEA mRNA and serum CEA level or other clinicopathologic characteristics.CEA mRNA was positive in all SGC 7901 cell line,but negative in peripheral blood of all healthy poeple.Conclusion The presence of CEA mRNA in peripheral blood is a helpful indicator of the hematogenic dissemination of tumor cells in patients with gastric cancer.It can be helpful to the judgement of prognosis and selection of treatment methods.Surgical manipulation may reduce the hematogenic dissemination of cancer cells.Furthermore,“no touch isolation” technique should be reinforced during operation.