Detection of breast cancer cells using immunomagnetic beads and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction

Molecular methods permit the detection of cells too few in number to be detected by light microscopy, immunohistochemistry, or flow cytometry (1-5). Numerous investigators are therefore developing sensitive and specific reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays for tumor cell detection. The detection of small numbers of tumor cells in blood, lymph node, and stem cell harvests may have a significant impact on our understanding of the spread of breast cancer, and eventually may impact the management of breast cancer patients as well.