The Primary Research Of Detecting Lymph Node Micro Metastasis Of Hepatocellular Carcinoma By Reverse Transcriptase-polymerase Chain Reaction (rt-pcr)

Objective To explore the feasibility of MAGE-1, MAGE-3 mRNA as markers of micrometastasis in lymph node of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC).Methods Subiects MAGE-1, MAGE-3 mRNA in lymph node were detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in 60 patients with HCC, 9 hepatitis B and liver cirrhosis, 5 the metastatic liver cancer, 4hepatic hemangioma. The result was compared with routine pathology detection using hematoxylin and eosine (HE) staining.Results A total of lymph nodes in 60 patients were analysed by pathological morphology and RT-PCR. MAGE-1, MAGE-3 mRNA were detected by RT-PCR in 18 patients with HCC (30%) , and negative in with hepatitis and cirrhosis, Hemangioma, metastatic liver cancer. The expression of MAGE-1, MAGE-3 mRNA was strongly correlated with tumor diameter, portal thrombosis, metastasia and TNM stage (P<0.05).Conclusions Detecting of micrometastasis in lymph node with RT-PCR method is more sensitive and reliable than pathological morphology. RT-PCR method could define the TNM stage accurately of patients with HCC.