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Updated: Oct 2, 2026
Detection of a Circulating MicroRNA Custom Panel in Patients with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
Published on: March 14, 2019
Detection of tumor cells in peritoneal lavages from patients with gastrointestinal cancer by multiplex reverse
P Schmidt1, M Thiele, C Rudroff
1Department of Surgery, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena Bachstrasse 18, D-07740 Jena, Germany.
Background/Aims:
Cytological examination of peritoneal lavages is a useful predictor of peritoneal recurrence in gastrointestinal carcinoma patients. Nevertheless, it may be inadequate for those patients with lavages containing only few cancer cells. In the present study, sensitive detection of free cancer cells could be achieved through amplification of cytokeratin 19, carcinoembryonic antigen, alpha-fetoprotein mRNAs by means of multiplex reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and nested polymerase chain reaction.
Methodology:
The multiplex reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay was used to examine lavage samples from 64 patients with various gastrointestinal malignant lesions (colorectal n = 27; duodenal carcinoma n = 1; gastric n = 7; pancreatic n = 4; hepatocellular carcinoma n = 2; gallbladder n = 1; cholangiocellular carcinoma n = 2 and 20 colorectal liver metastases. Specificity was assessed by examination of 15 donors without malignancies. In addition, nested polymerase chain reaction was used to improve the sensitivity of the assay for the detection of alpha-fetoprotein transcripts.
Results:
Peritoneal lavages from 12 of 64 gastrointestinal carcinoma patients were positive for carcinoembryonic antigen mRNA. Carcinoembryonic antigen proved a specific marker, as no false-positives were detected in any patients without gastrointestinal cancer. alpha-fetoprotein mRNA was detected exclusively in peritoneal lavages from tumor patients, i.e., in 16 of 27 colon cancer patients, 14 of 20 patients with colorectal liver metastasis, 2 of 7 patients with gastric cancer, two patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and 2 of 4 patients with pancreatic cancer. Cytokeratin 19 mRNA was not found a useful marker, since control patients without malignancies were also positive.
Conclusions:
Our data suggest that carcinoembryonic antigen- and alpha-fetoprotein mRNA in peritoneal lavage are potentially useful specific markers for early diagnosis of metastasis of gastrointestinal cancer. It has been shown that alpha-fetoprotein-specific nested reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction can detect not only hepatocellular carcinoma cells, but also malignant cells from other gastrointestinal carcinomas. In contrast, cytokeratin 19 mRNA lacks specificity for gastrointestinal cancer.
