Spectrum of cytokeratin-positive cells in the bone marrows of colorectal carcinoma patients.

Background: Bone marrow micrometastases (BMM) is considered to be of interest as a prognostic marker in solid tumors. The use of density-gradient separated bone marrow (BM) aspirates does not allow proper morphological characterization of the cells. An alternative approach, using routinely processed clots of BM aspirates, is presented.