Skip to main content
PMC home page
British Journal of Cancer logoLink to British Journal of Cancer
. 1998 Apr;77(8):1327–1332. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1998.221

Cytokeratin 20 mRNA in peripheral venous blood of colorectal carcinoma patients.

N O Funaki 1, J Tanaka 1, G Ohshio 1, H Onodera 1, S Maetani 1, M Imamura 1
PMCID: PMC2150160  PMID: 9579841

Abstract

A highly sensitive system was previously developed by us to detect the presence of colorectal carcinoma cells in blood in the form of cytokeratin 20 (CK20) mRNA. In the present study, we used an improved version of this system to analyse the peripheral blood of 28 patients with colorectal carcinoma, five patients with non-cancerous intestinal diseases and six normal controls for the presence or absence of CK20 mRNA and to investigate the relationship between the mRNA results and prognosis. All eight patients with recurrence were positive for CK20 mRNA, as were four patients in the Dukes' C stage with either distant metastasis or dissemination. Five of the nine patients in the Dukes' C stage with neither distant metastasis nor dissemination were positive, and three of these developed recurrence within 11 months after the analysis. Only one of the seven patients in the Dukes' A or B stage was positive, and none showed recurrence during the 1-19 months of observation. None of the five patients without carcinomas or of the six normal controls was positive. Although the follow-up period is limited and the recurrences were all local at present, these results suggest that the presence of CK20 mRNA in circulation may be a useful indicator for the screening of advanced colorectal carcinoma patients with a high risk of recurrence.

Full text

PDF
1327

Images in this article

1330Figure 1
on p.1330
1331Figure 2
on p.1331

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Burchill S. A., Bradbury M. F., Pittman K., Southgate J., Smith B., Selby P. Detection of epithelial cancer cells in peripheral blood by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Br J Cancer. 1995 Feb;71(2):278–281. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1995.56. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Chomczynski P., Sacchi N. Single-step method of RNA isolation by acid guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform extraction. Anal Biochem. 1987 Apr;162(1):156–159. doi: 10.1006/abio.1987.9999. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Funaki N. O., Tanaka J., Itami A., Kasamatsu T., Ohshio G., Onodera H., Monden K., Okino T., Imamura M. Detection of colorectal carcinoma cells in circulating peripheral blood by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction targeting cytokeratin-20 mRNA. Life Sci. 1997;60(9):643–652. doi: 10.1016/s0024-3205(96)00700-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Funaki N. O., Tanaka J., Kasamatsu T., Ohshio G., Hosotani R., Okino T., Imamura M. Identification of carcinoembryonic antigen mRNA in circulating peripheral blood of pancreatic carcinoma and gastric carcinoma patients. Life Sci. 1996;59(25-26):2187–2199. doi: 10.1016/s0024-3205(96)00576-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Funaki N. O., Tanaka J., Seto S. I., Kasamatsu T., Kaido T., Imamura M. Hematogenous spreading of hepatocellular carcinoma cells: possible participation in recurrence in the liver. Hepatology. 1997 Mar;25(3):564–568. doi: 10.1002/hep.510250312. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Funaki N., Tanaka J., Seto S., Kasamatsu T., Kaido T., Imamura M. Highly-sensitive identification of alpha-fetoprotein mRNA in circulating peripheral blood of hepatocellular carcinoma patients. Life Sci. 1995;57(17):1621–1631. doi: 10.1016/0024-3205(95)02138-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Fuqua S. A., Falette N. F., McGuire W. L. Sensitive detection of estrogen receptor RNA by polymerase chain reaction assay. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1990 May 16;82(10):858–861. doi: 10.1093/jnci/82.10.858. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Gillespie D. H., Cuddy K. K., Kolbe T., Marks D. I. Dissolve and capture: a strategy for analysing mRNA in blood. Nature. 1994 Jan 27;367(6461):390–391. doi: 10.1038/367390a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Mayer B., Jauch K. W., Günthert U., Figdor C. G., Schildberg F. W., Funke I., Johnson J. P. De-novo expression of CD44 and survival in gastric cancer. Lancet. 1993 Oct 23;342(8878):1019–1022. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(93)92879-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Mayer B., Johnson J. P., Leitl F., Jauch K. W., Heiss M. M., Schildberg F. W., Birchmeier W., Funke I. E-cadherin expression in primary and metastatic gastric cancer: down-regulation correlates with cellular dedifferentiation and glandular disintegration. Cancer Res. 1993 Apr 1;53(7):1690–1695. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Moll R., Franke W. W., Schiller D. L., Geiger B., Krepler R. The catalog of human cytokeratins: patterns of expression in normal epithelia, tumors and cultured cells. Cell. 1982 Nov;31(1):11–24. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(82)90400-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Moll R., Löwe A., Laufer J., Franke W. W. Cytokeratin 20 in human carcinomas. A new histodiagnostic marker detected by monoclonal antibodies. Am J Pathol. 1992 Feb;140(2):427–447. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Moll R., Zimbelmann R., Goldschmidt M. D., Keith M., Laufer J., Kasper M., Koch P. J., Franke W. W. The human gene encoding cytokeratin 20 and its expression during fetal development and in gastrointestinal carcinomas. Differentiation. 1993 Jun;53(2):75–93. doi: 10.1111/j.1432-0436.1993.tb00648.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Pearlman N. W., Donohue R. E., Stiegmann G. V., Ahnen D. J., Sedlacek S. M., Braun T. J. Pelvic and sacropelvic exenteration for locally advanced or recurrent anorectal cancer. Arch Surg. 1987 May;122(5):537–541. doi: 10.1001/archsurg.1987.01400170043006. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Semple T. U., Quinn L. A., Woods L. K., Moore G. E. Tumor and lymphoid cell lines from a patient with carcinoma of the colon for a cytotoxicity model. Cancer Res. 1978 May;38(5):1345–1355. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Taylor I. Liver metastases from colorectal cancer: lessons from past and present clinical studies. Br J Surg. 1996 Apr;83(4):456–460. doi: 10.1002/bjs.1800830406. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Togo S., Shimada H., Kubota T., Moossa A. R., Hoffman R. M. "Seed" to "soil" is a return trip in metastasis. Anticancer Res. 1995 May-Jun;15(3):791–794. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Journal of Cancer are provided here courtesy of Cancer Research UK

RESOURCES