Authors
Songdong Meng, Debasish Tripathy, Eugene P Frenkel, Sanjay Shete, Elizabeth Z Naftalis, James F Huth, Peter D Beitsch, Marilyn Leitch, Susan Hoover, David Euhus, Barbara Haley, Larry Morrison, Timothy P Fleming, Dorothee Herlyn, Leon WMM Terstappen, Tanja Fehm, Thomas F Tucker, Nancy Lane, Jianqiang Wang, Jonathan W Uhr
Publication date
2004/12/15
Journal
Clinical cancer research
Volume
10
Issue
24
Pages
8152-8162
Publisher
American Association for Cancer Research
Description
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are present in patients many years after mastectomy without evidence of disease and that these CTCs are shed from persisting tumor in patients with breast cancer dormancy.
Experimental Design: We searched for CTCs in 36 dormancy candidate patients and 26 age-matched controls using stringent criteria for cytomorphology, immunophenotype, and aneusomy.
Results: Thirteen of 36 dormancy candidates, 7 to 22 years after mastectomy and without evidence of clinical disease, had CTCs, usually on more than one occasion. Only 1 of 26 controls had a possible CTC (no aneusomy). The statistical difference of these two distributions was significant (exact P = 0.0043). The CTCs in patients whose primary breast cancer was just removed had a half-life measured in 1 to 2.4 hours …
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Scholar articles
S Meng, D Tripathy, EP Frenkel, S Shete, EZ Naftalis… - Clinical cancer research, 2004