Identification of superior markers for polymerase chain reaction detection of breast cancer metastases in sentinel lymph nodes.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is being evaluated in breast cancer patients to improve detection of metastases and to guide therapy with minimal morbidity. The use of reverse transcription-PCR analysis to increase detection of tumor cells in SLN of breast cancer patients is hampered by the lack of specific markers. In this study, seven markers were evaluated by reverse transcription-PCR for expression in human breast adenocarcinoma lines (BrCa) and in normal nodes from non-cancer patients. Two markers yielded exceptional results; mammaglobin and carcinoembryonic antigen transcripts were detected in 100 and 71% BrCa, respectively, and were absent from all normal lymph nodes. These markers will be used as components of a multimarker panel to evaluate sentinel nodes in an on-going, multicenter clinical trial.