Unreliability of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in detecting contaminating breast cancer cells in peripheral blood stem cells due to induction of CEA by growth factors.

Goeminne, Jean-Charles;Guillaume, T;Salmon, M.;Machiels, Jean-Pascal;Symann, Michel;et.al.
(1999) Bone Marrow Transplantation — Vol. 24, n° 7, p. 769-775 (1999)

Files

1701966.pdf
  • Restricted Access
  • Adobe PDF
  • 168.34 KB
Request a copy

Details

Authors
  • Goeminne, Jean-CharlesUCLouvain
    Author
  • Guillaume, TUCLouvain
    Author
  • Salmon, M.UCLouvain
    Author
  • Machiels, Jean-PascalUCLouvain
    Author
  • D'hondt, VéroniqueUCLouvain
    Author
  • Symann, MichelUCLouvain
    Author
Show more
Abstract
RT-PCR is increasingly used for the detection of minimal residual disease in solid tumors. Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) RT-PCR seemed to be highly specific for detection of tumor cells when tested on PBMC. A very high frequency of RT-PCR amplification product for CEA in PBSC from breast cancer patients mobilized with G-CSF was found. However, this result contrasted with tumor cell detection by immunocytochemistry (ICC) which showed no correlation with RT-PCR results. In addition, CEA mRNA was amplified in most G-CSF-mobilized PBSC samples derived from patients with hematological malignancies and from healthy donors of allogeneic stem cells, although no circulating epithelial cells could be demonstrated by ICC. CEA RT-PCR expression was observed in PBMC from healthy individuals incubated in vitro with G-CSF. These data suggest that CEA transcription can be induced by G-CSF, resulting in a loss of specificity of CEA RT-PCR for tumor cell detection in PBMC. We conclude, CEA RT-PCR may not be recommended to detect tumor cell contamination in peripheral blood from patients treated with G-CSF. This may have implications on tumor cell detection by RT-PCR in tissues where endogenous or exogenous growth factors may induce the transcription of CEA or other genes.
Affiliations

Citations

  • APA
  • Chicago
  • FWB

Goeminne, J.-C., Guillaume, T., Salmon, M., Machiels, J.-P., D’hondt, V., & Symann, M. (1999). Unreliability of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in detecting contaminating breast cancer cells in peripheral blood stem cells due to induction of CEA by growth factors. Bone Marrow Transplantation, 24(7), 769-775. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1701966 (Original work published 1999)