ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the specificity, sensitivity and their clinical significance of detecting CK19 mRNA expression by nested RT-PCR for molecular diagnosis of micrometastasis in the peripheral blood and bone marrow of patients with non-small cell lung cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>CK19 mRNA expression was detected by nested RT-PCR in peripheral blood and bone marrow samples from 59 lung cancer patients, with samples of 11 benign pulmonary lesion patients and 20 healthy adults as control.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The sensitivity of nested RT-PCR was 10(-6). The positive rates of micrometastasis were 33.89% (20/59) in peripheral blood and 22.03% (13/59) in bone marrow, with a highly positive correlation existing between the two groups (P < 0.05). The micrometastasis in peripheral blood and bone marrow was closely correlated with the pathological classification and cell differentiation (P < 0.05) and P-TNM stage (P < 0.01). No CK19 mRNA expression was found in the samples from patients with benign pulmonary lesion or healthy adult volunteers.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The peripheral blood and bone marrow from patients with non-small cell lung cancer possesses micrometastasis that can not be detected by common methods. Nested RT-PCR technique shows favorable specificity and sensitivity in detecting the condition with definite clinical prospects.</p>