Detection Of CEAmRNA In Peripheral Blood Of Patients With Gastric Cancer And Its Clinical Significance

objective To evaluate the clinical significance of the expression of Carcinoembryonic Antigen mRNA(CEAmRNA) in peripheral blood of patients with gastric cancer. Methods Nested RT-PCR technique was used to detect CEAmRNA in peripheral blood of 42 gastric-cancer patients before and after tumor resection.The serum CEA values were also determined by Chemiluminesence reaction. The SGC-7901 gastric-cancer cell line and lymphocytes from the healthy controls were used as positive and negative controls,respectively.Results There are 19 patients with gastric cancer who can be detected CEAmRNA in peripheral blood. The positive rate of CEAmRNA was 16.7%(1/6)in stageⅠ , 28.6%(2/7)in stageⅡ, 35.7%(5/14) in stage Ⅲ,and 73.3%(11/15)in stageⅣ .The positive rates according to depth of tumor invasion were 14.3%(1/7)in T1﹑30.0%(3/10)in T2﹑41.7%(5/12)in T3﹑76.9%(10/13)in T4.The positive rate of CEAmRNA was higher after tumor resection than that before tumor resection(56.0% VS 28.0%, P =0.039). The positive detection of CEAmRNA in peripheral blood was significantly correlated with UICC stage﹑depth of tumor invasion and liver metastasis. However,there was no significant correlation between the prevalence of CEAmRNA and serum CEA level or other clinicopathologic characteristics. CEAmRNA was detected in all SGC-7901 cell line, but was not detected in peripheral blood of all health peoples and benign gastropathy.Conclution RT-PCR is a sensitive method for detecting CEAmRNA;CEAmRNA is a good marker for detecting gastric carcinoma cells in peripheral blood;CEAmRNA can be used to monitor blood micrometastases of the tumor in an early stage; Surgical manipulation may provoke the hematogenic dissemination of cancer cells, so "no-touch isolation"technique should be reinforced during operation to reduce inoperative iatrogenic tumor cells dissemination .