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Diverse diagnostic procedures for the detection of micrometastasis at the genetic
level have developed rapidly. RT-PCR is one of the most sensitive methods to detect
a small number of circulating tumor cells in blood and can detect a single tumor cell
among 105 to 107 normal cells.
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Despite the immense power of this technique, the occurrence of false-positive results
is a big problem. Concerning the DNA-based method, amplification of tumor-specific
molecular markers by PCR is also able to offer a sensitive way to detect low copy
numbers of such mutations. The mutant allele-specific amplification (MASA) method
is one technique of PCR amplification of tumor-specific DNA sequences that can detect
1 tumor cell with genetic alteration among 104 normal cells.
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,
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Despite the limitation of sensitivity compared with other methods, we have used MASA
to detect circulating tumor cells selectively in the portal blood stream to avoid
false-positive results.To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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References
- No-touch isolation technique reduces intraoperative shedding of tumor cells into the portal vein during resection of colorectal cancer.Surgery. 1999; 125: 369-374
- Detection of melanoma cells in peripheral blood by means of reverse transcriptase and polymerase chain reaction.Lancet. 1991; 338: 1227-1229
- Detection of K-ras mutation in sputum by mutant-allele-specific amplification (MASA).Hum Mutat. 1993; 2: 112-117
- Cancer Res. 1994; 54: 3853-3856
- Blood dissemination of colonic epithelial cells during no-touch surgery for rectosigmoid cancer.Lancet. 1999; 354: 392
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© 2000 Mosby, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
