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Detection of lymph node micrometastasis in gastric cancer by MUC2 RT‐PCR: Usefulness in pT1 cases
Author(s) -
Sonoda Hiromichi,
Yamamoto Kazuo,
Kushima Ryoji,
Okabe Hidetoshi,
Tani Tohru
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of surgical oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.201
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1096-9098
pISSN - 0022-4790
DOI - 10.1002/jso.20143
Subject(s) - micrometastasis , medicine , carcinoembryonic antigen , lymph , lymph node , cancer , pathology , metastasis
Background and Objectives The objectives of this study were to evaluate the clinical utility of MUC2‐specific reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) in gastric cancer patients and to compare MUC2‐specific RT‐PCR to carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)‐specific RT‐PCR. Methods A total of 305 lymph nodes from 28 patients with gastric cancer were histologically examined and analyzed by MUC2 RT‐PCR and CEA RT‐PCR. Results MUC2 and CEA were expressed in 17.1 and 7.0% of the 286 histologically negative lymph nodes, respectively. The detection rate of MUC2 was significantly higher than that of CEA ( P < 0.01). MUC2 RT‐PCR revealed no false positive results in control specimens. Lymph node micrometastases in pT1 gastric cancer were expressed only in perigastric lymph nodes near the tumor and were not detected in tumor less than 30 mm in patients with mucosal cancer. Conclusions MUC2‐specific RT‐PCR is a sensitive and specific method to detect lymph node micrometastases in gastric cancer patients. The distribution of lymph node micrometastases detected by this method may be useful in minimally invasive procedures for gastric cancer, especially pT1 cases. J. Surg. Oncol. 2004;88:63–70. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.