ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The study was performed to determine detection rate and prognostic relevance of disseminated tumour cells (DTC) in patients receiving curatively intended surgery for colorectal cancer (CRC). METHODS: The study population consisted of 235 patients with CRC prospectively recruited from five hospitals in the Oslo region. Bone marrow (BM) aspirates were collected at the time of surgery and the presence of DTC was determined by two immunological methods; immunomagnetic selection (using an anti-EpCAM antibody) and immunocytochemistry (using a pan-cytokeratin antibody). Associations between the presence of DTC and metastasis-free, disease-specific and overall survival were analysed using univariate and multivariate methods. RESULTS: Disseminated tumour cells were detected in 41 (17%) and 28 (12%) of the 235 examined BM samples by immunomagnetic selection and immunocytochemistry, respectively, with only five samples being positive with both methods. The presence of DTC was associated with adverse outcome (metastasis-free, disease-specific and overall survival) in univariate and multivariate analyses. CONCLUSION: The presence of DTC was associated with adverse prognosis in this cohort of patients curatively resected for CRC, suggesting that DTC detection still holds promise as a biomarker in CRC.
Subject(s)
Bone Marrow/pathology , Colorectal Neoplasms/pathology , Colorectal Neoplasms/surgery , Neoplastic Cells, Circulating/pathology , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Analysis of Variance , Antigens, Neoplasm/analysis , Cell Adhesion Molecules/analysis , Disease-Free Survival , Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule , Female , Humans , Immunohistochemistry , Immunomagnetic Separation , Kaplan-Meier Estimate , Keratins/analysis , Male , Middle Aged , Neoplasm Staging , Norway , Predictive Value of Tests , Prognosis , Prospective StudiesABSTRACT
Tissue injury including myocardial infarction leads to a variety of changes in plasma proteins commonly referred to as "the acute phase response". In this report the concentrations of serum amyloid A protein (SAA) were measured serially in 6 patients with myocardial infarction and 4 with angina. SAA was found to be increased in all patients with infarction, but in no patients with angina. Significantly increased SAA levels were detected 12 hours after the peak level of creatine kinase, and the concentrations of SAA seemed to correlate to the amount of damaged tissue. The SAA-response was both faster and more extensive than the response of C-reactive protein (CRP), but the correlation between SAA and CRP was very good.
