Detection Of Circulating Carcinoma Cells In Peripheral Blood Collected From Patients With Ovarian Cancer By Using Different Molecular Markers - A Preliminary Report

In ovarian cancer, the significance of the presence of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in blood and their participation in the process of metastases remains still undetermined. Latest findings on this matter suggest a need to revise the modern persuasion about the meaning of single tumour cell detection in peripheral blood (PB) and its assesment in standard cancer diagnostic procedures. However, that negative state induced the investigation of mRNA transcripts present in tumour diseases, which could be easily detected by using real-time RT-PCR method. The RNA marker used in our study was telomerase catalytic subunit (hTERT) and additionally three other markers thought to be tissue-specific for ovaries. The blood samples from 20 women with primary ovarian cancer and no prior chemotherapy were taken to this study and divided into two 10-person groups. Blood from each group was used either to perform real-time RT-PCR, or TA PCR-ELI- SA [enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay]. Both real-time RT-PCR and TA PCR-ELISA methods showed some degree of specificity in this study, but not enough to be put in practice. Both results of our study and the small number of articles on molecular markers suitable for detecting in PB of patients with ovarian cancer show that this aim will be hard to achieve by using standard molecular biology tools, like PCR or even real-time PCR. However, these attempts should not be terminated and further studies should be performed, because if any of them succeeds, the diagnostic value of this technique would be great.