Background: The occurrence of disseminated tumour cells in bone marrow of patients with breast cancer is linked to a worse prognosis. We present a method for DTC detection from bone marrow samples based on immunocytochemistry, using breast cancer-associated glycosylation molecules as markers for detection and characterization.
Materials and methods: A double immunofluorescence staining of a pan-cytokeratin (CK) marker and either Tn or O-Acetyl-GD3 was carried out in artificial and patient bone marrow samples.
Results: The sample in which most cells stained positive for CK/Tn and CK/O-AC-GD3, was obtained from a patient who certainly had remote metastases. All other bone marrow samples showed heterogenous staining, so no correlation to tumour characteristics could be revealed.
Conclusion: A certain characterization of tumour cells can be achieved by a double staining of bone marrow samples with CK and a glycosylation marker. For future studies, analysis should be extended to a larger patient collective and further examination of more glycosylation markers should be carried out.
Keywords: Breast cancer; bone marrow; glycosylation; immunocytochemistry.
Copyright© 2016 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.