» Articles » PMID: 18671755

Technical Limits of Comparison of Step-sectioning,immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR on Breast Cancer Sentinel Nodes: a Study on Methacarn-fixed Tissue

Overview
Journal J Cell Mol Med
Date 2008 Aug 2
PMID 18671755
Citations 8
Authors
Affiliations
Soon will be listed here.
Abstract

The optimal pathological assessment of sentinel nodes (SLNs) in breast cancer is a matter of debate. Currently, multilevel histological evaluation and immunohistochemistry (IHC) are recommended, but alternative RT-PCR procedures have been developed. To assess the reliability of these different procedures, we devised a step-sectioning protocol at 100 micron-intervals of 74 SLNs using methacarn fixation. mRNA was extracted from sections collected from levels 4 to 5. Mammaglobin, CEA and CK19 were used for RT-PCR. mRNA extraction was successful in 69 SLNs. Of these, 7 showed macrometastases (>2mm), 2 showed micrometastases (<2 mm) and 7 showed isolated tumour cells (ITC) by IHC. RT-PCR was positive for the three markers in 6 of 7 macrometastases and in 1 of 2 micrometastases. In the 2 RT-PCR negative cases, metastases were detected only on sections distant from those analysed by RT-PCR. CEA and/or CK19 were positive by RT-PCR in 3 of 7 ITC and in 23 morphologically negative SLNs. In conclusion, the main goal of our study was to show that the use of alternate sections of the same sample for different procedures is the key reason for the discrepancies between molecular and morphological analyses of SLN. We believe that only prospective studies with quantitative mRNA analysis of specific metastatic markers on the whole lymph node can elucidate the utility of molecular assessments of SLN.

Citing Articles

Molecular Detection of Lymph Node Metastases with One-Step Nucleic Acid Amplification (OSNA) Pooling in Prostate Cancer: The POPCORN Study.

Cuadras M, Semidey M, Planas J, de Torres I, Regis L, Celma A Int J Mol Sci. 2025; 25(24.

PMID: 39769252 PMC: 11679750. DOI: 10.3390/ijms252413489.


OSNA Total Tumor Load for the Prediction of Axillary Involvement in Breast Cancer Patients: Should We use Different Thresholds According to the Intrinsic Molecular Subtype? MOTTO Study.

Bernet L, Hardisson D, Rodrigo M, Cordoba A, Sancho M, Peg V Clin Pathol. 2023; 16:2632010X231183693.

PMID: 37534372 PMC: 10392164. DOI: 10.1177/2632010X231183693.


Detection of Minimal Residual Disease in the Peripheral Blood of Breast Cancer Patients, with a Multi Marker (MGB-1, MGB-2, CK-19 and NY-BR-1) Assay.

Meijer S, Klebanov-Akopyn O, Pavlov V, Laks S, Hazzan D, Nissan A Breast Cancer (Dove Med Press). 2021; 13:617-624.

PMID: 34815711 PMC: 8605792. DOI: 10.2147/BCTT.S337075.


Evaluation of Fast Molecular Detection of Lymph Node Metastases in Prostate Cancer Patients Using One-Step Nucleic Acid Amplification (OSNA).

Engels S, Brautmeier L, Reinhardt L, Wasylow C, Hasselmann F, Henke R Cancers (Basel). 2021; 13(5).

PMID: 33807774 PMC: 7961354. DOI: 10.3390/cancers13051117.


Intraoperative diagnosis of sentinel lymph node metastases in breast cancer treatment with one-step nucleic acid amplification assay (OSNA).

Szychta P, Westfal B, Maciejczyk R, Smolarz B, Romanowicz H, Krawczyk T Arch Med Sci. 2016; 12(6):1239-1246.

PMID: 27904514 PMC: 5108387. DOI: 10.5114/aoms.2016.62902.


References
1.
Shibutani M, Uneyama C, Miyazaki K, Toyoda K, Hirose M . Methacarn fixation: a novel tool for analysis of gene expressions in paraffin-embedded tissue specimens. Lab Invest. 2000; 80(2):199-208. DOI: 10.1038/labinvest.3780023. View

2.
Singletary S, Connolly J . Breast cancer staging: working with the sixth edition of the AJCC Cancer Staging Manual. CA Cancer J Clin. 2006; 56(1):37-47. DOI: 10.3322/canjclin.56.1.37. View

3.
Manzotti M, DellOrto P, Maisonneuve P, Zurrida S, Mazzarol G, Viale G . Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assay for multiple mRNA markers in the detection of breast cancer metastases in sentinel lymph nodes. Int J Cancer. 2001; 95(5):307-12. DOI: 10.1002/1097-0215(20010920)95:5<307::aid-ijc0153>3.0.co;2-q. View

4.
Tsujimoto M, Nakabayashi K, Yoshidome K, Kaneko T, Iwase T, Akiyama F . One-step nucleic acid amplification for intraoperative detection of lymph node metastasis in breast cancer patients. Clin Cancer Res. 2007; 13(16):4807-16. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-06-2512. View

5.
Ferrari A, Rovera F, Dionigi P, Limonta G, Marelli M, Besana Ciani I . Sentinel lymph node biopsy as the new standard of care in the surgical treatment for breast cancer. Expert Rev Anticancer Ther. 2006; 6(10):1503-15. DOI: 10.1586/14737140.6.10.1503. View