ABSTRACT
There is a growing body of evidence that cancer cells infiltrate peripheral blood in very early stages of the breast cancer. Only about one per 105-106 cancer cells will get to and settle in distant organs and a small percentage of those will develop metastasis. The aim of this study was to use Four marker assays for detection of breast cancer cells circulating in patients' blood. We analyzed the usefulness of four mRNA markers: Mammaglobin [hMAM], epidermal growth factor receptor [EGFR], matrix metal loproteinase-2 and -9 [MMP-2, MMP-9] using RT-PCR technique. Blood samples from 135 cases [75 primary breast cancer patients and 60 healthy volunteers] were tested for the previously mentioned markers. hMAM transcripts were found in 41 of 75 cases [55.6%] of malignant patients and in 1.66% of the healthy donors [p=0.0001]. EGFR transcripts were found in 42.6% of malignant patients and 3.3% of healthy volunteers [p=0.00001]. MMP-2 transcripts were detected in 38.6% of malignant cases and not detected in healthy subjects [p=0.0001]. In case of MMP-9, no significant difference was observed between all cases studied [p=1.00]. No significant correlation was existed among molecular markers studied and clinicopathological data except for MMP-2 with ER positive vases [p=0.012]. These data suggest that, hMAM, EGFR, and MMP-2 allowed the detection of circulating breast cancer cells and MMP-2 is more specific to tumor and is associated with ER positive breast cancer cases