Detection of free gastric cancer cell in peripheral and portal blood

In fact, there is no definite treatment modality after liver or hematogenous metastasis in the gastric cancer. So it is important to develop a new method to predict the high risk patients for systemic recurrence. If we can detect metastatic cell in circulation, it may be beneficial in assessing tumor progression, metastatic potential and prognosis. To establish the RT-PCR methodology for detection of CEA expressing cancer cells in peripheral and portal blood and to define the relationship between peripheral and portal blood detection rate of gastric cancer patients, we performed RT-PCR analysis with peripheral and portal blood samples from 24 patients with gastric cancer (stage Ia,b, n=3; stage II, n=2; stage IIIa, n=9; stage IIIb, n=7; stage IV, n=3) and checked serum CEA level preoperatively. Mean age was 49.2 years old and male : female was 1.2 : 2 (13:11 patients). The mean serum CEA level was 10.4 ng/ml and that was higher than normal in only 2 cases. There was no positive case of tumor cell in portal and peripheral blood using RT-PCR and CEA gene specific primer. Our results indicate that the incidence of circulating cancer cells is unexpectedly very low even in advanced gastric cancer patients. (author). 20 refs