Molecular Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells in peripheral blood of colon cancer patients

AIM: The aim of our pilot study was to evaluate the use of acommercial kit (AdnaTest) for the detection of circulating tumor cellsof patients with colon cancer.METHODS: After immunomagnetic enrichment and mRNAextraction, multiplex RT-PCR was performed in peripheral bloodspecimens from 50 patients and 40 healthy donors (control group) forbeta-actin gene (as an internal control) and three tumor genes.RESULTS: The internal PCR-control band of beta-actin was presentin all samples. In the peripheral blood of four patients, aberrantexpression of the CEA and GA 733-2 tumor genes was observed.Three of these patients were stage IV (Dukes D), with liver metastasisaccording to the histopathological examination. The other one wasstage III (Dukes C) with no confirmed histopathological metastasis.CONCLUSIONS: Further studies are needed to validate bothtechnically and clinically the use of this kit in the peripheral blood ofpatients with colon cancer.