Prognostic significance of disseminated tumor cells as detected by quantitative real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction in patients with breast cancer.

Background: In this study we have validated the feasibility of detecting disseminated tumor cells (DTC) by real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis. Bone marrow samples from a large cohort of patients with breast cancer were analyzed for the presence of DTC by immunocytochemistry (ICC) or a molecular-based method.

Patients And Methods: Bone marrow samples were collected from 170 patients with breast cancer with stage I-IV disease before the initiation of any local or systemic treatment.