Immunocytochemical detection of occult tumor cells in the bone marrow: prognostic impact on early stages of lung cancer
Nosotti M et al. - Immunocytochemical analysis detects occult tumor cells in the bone marrow of at least 25% of pt surgically treated for stage I and II non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC); these occult tumor cells have no impact on the disease-free interval Methods- Study to verify the prognostic impact of occult tumor cells in the bone marrow of stage I and II NSCLC pts using cytokeratin as a micrometastatic marker
- Review of 152 pts with stage I and II NSCLC who had radical surgery by pulmonary lobectomy
- Anti-cytokeratin 18 antibody stain of bone marrow from fragments of resected ribs and primary tumors
- Controls: 14 bone marrow specimens from pts without malignancy
- End point: cancer recurrence
Results- All primary tumors positive for cytokeratin
- Occult tumor cells found in 38 bone marrow specimens (25%)
- Prevalence of occult tumor cells was not related to age, gender, tumor stage, histologic differentiation or grade
- Mean follow-up was 35.3 mo
- Recurrence in 68 pts; mean time to recurrence: 21.2 mo
- General disease-free interval not related to presence of occult tumor cells in bone marrow, which did not change with pts grouped by tumor stage
- Stage was the best predictor of cancer recurrence
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