Sensitivity of Assays Designed for the Detection of Disseminated Epithelial Tumor Cells Is Influenced by Cell Separation Methods

[摘要] The frequency of detection of disseminated tumor cells in hemopoietic specimens varies among studies (1)(2). For a reliable comparison of results, standardization of detection protocols would be desirable. In addition to concerns about techniques for detection [e.g., reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR)], the method for cell isolation may be critical (3)(4). We examined two methods for cell isolation as applied to three types of specimens before detection of tumor cells by immunocytochemistry or RT-PCR (5).We analyzed 254 samples consisting of 90 bone marrow aspirates, 104 granulocyte colony-stimulating factor-mobilized stem cell samples harvested at steady-state hemopoiesis, and 60 venous blood samples. Samples were from patients with high-risk breast cancer (n = 237), large bowel cancer (n = 13), gastric cancer (n = 2), ovarian cancer (n = 1), and salivary gland cancer (n = 1). Samples were assigned without conscious bias to nucleated cell separation either by ficoll centrifugation (30 min at 400 …

[学科分类] 过敏症与临床免疫学