Journal
CLINICAL CHEMISTRY
Volume 50, Issue 5, Pages 826-835Publisher
AMER ASSOC CLINICAL CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1373/clinchem.2003.028563
Keywords
-
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Background: Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) represent a surrogate source of tissue and conceptually represent a real-time biopsy. We previously reported that the number of CTCs mirrors disease progression in hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC). To improve characterization of CTCs we further investigated whether in vitro transcription-based multigene reverse transcription-PCR expression profiles could be obtained from CTCs in HRPC. Methods: We evaluated the expression of 37 genes with potential utility for epithelial cell characterization from antisense RNA libraries constructed from immunomagnetically enriched CTCs from 7.5-mL blood samples from healthy donors and patients with HRPC. Results: In the control group 13 of 37 genes were not expressed. The most notable of the genes expressed in CTCs of 23 blood specimens drawn from 9 patients with metastatic prostate cancer were prostate-specific antigen (20 of 23; 87%), prostate-specific membrane antigen (17 of 23; 74%), androgen receptor (16 of 23; 70%), human glandular kallikrein 2 (7 of 23; 30%), epidermal growth factor receptor (4 of 23; 17%), and prostate-specific gene with homology to G protein receptor (2 of 23; 9%). The number of CTCs in these samples ranged from 4 to 283 in 7.5 mL of blood (mean, 87; median, 89). Expression of some of the genes was low in the control samples and higher in the patient samples. In all 23 samples, cytokeratin 19, epithelial cell adhesion molecule, or mucin 1 was expressed. Because of background expression in the controls, expression of 13 of the 37 genes, including HER-2, p53, and BCL-2, could not be measured in CTCs. Conclusion: Antisense RNA libraries can be constructed from CTCs and gene expression profiles of CTCs obtained from patients with HRPC. This could enhance the characterization of HRPC and facilitate the development of more effective therapies. (C) 2004 American Association for Clinical Chemistry.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available