RESUMO
Objective: To explore the clinical value of cytokeratin 19 (CK19) and human mammaglobin (hMAM) in the detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in peripheral blood of patients with breast cancer. Methods: Expressions of CK19 and hMAM in blood were identified by real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR, and the correlations between CK19, hMAM and the clinicopathologic features were analyzed. Results: In breast cancer patients, the rates of diagnostic positive detection of individual CK19 or hMAM and the combination of these two biomarkers were 45.5% (20/44), 38.6% (17/44) and 56.8% (25/44), respectively. The expression of combined biomarkers was correlated with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.031). The rates of diagnostic positive detection of CK19, hMAM and the combination biomarkers were significantly higher in breast cancer patients prior to treatment than those in the healthy control group (P = 0.000 3, P = 0.000 1 and P = 0.000 1, respectively). After two-cycle chemotherapy, CTCs which were positive at baseline presented as negative in 5 stage III patients and 4 stage IV patients (P = 0.025 3 and P = 0.045 5). However, the number of CTCs-positive patients at stagesI-II decreased no matter using CK19, hMAM or CK19 plus hMAM as biomarker, leaving more CTCs-positive patients in combined biomarker group than that in single biomarker group, but there was no statistical significance. Conclusion: The combined panel of both hMAM and CK19 may serve as representative biomarkers for CTCs, thus it presents potentially significant value for monitoring early metastasis, therapeutic efficacy and prognosis for the patients with breast cancer. Copyright © 2014 by TUMOR.