PURPOSE: Cancer cells can be detected in bloods, lymph nodes or bone marrows by using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). We investigated to detect carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) mRNA in peripheral blood by RT-PCR as a circulating tumor cell maker of gastric cancer patients.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Gastric cancer patients were early gastric cancer with curative surgery (Group A, n=9), advanced gastric cancer with curative surgery (Group B, n 18) and relapsed or metastatic gastric cancer (Group C, n=13).
RT-PCR was performed to detect CEA mRNA expression in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells and we used Colo 201 cells as a positive control.
RESULTS: Seventeen patients (42.5%) were positive for CEA mRNA, whereas all the nine normal subjects were negative. There were significant differences between group A and C (p=0.041), group B and C (p=0.001) and between patients underwent curative surgery and metastatic gastric cancer patients (p 0.001) but not between A and B (p 0.326) for the positive rate of CEA mRNA.
CONCLUSION: Large number of gastric cancer patients showed positive CEA mRNA in peripheral blood suggesting that gastric cancer cells can metastasize into blood at early stage.
PDF Links
Full text via DOI 
Download Citation 
