1Section of Medical Oncology and 5Section of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgical and Oncology ... ª 2006 European Society for Medical Oncology ...
symposium article
Annals of Oncology 17 (Supplement 7): vii41–vii45, 2006 doi:10.1093/annonc/mdl948
Detection and quantification of mammaglobin in the blood of breast cancer patients: can it be useful as a potential clinical marker? Preliminary results of a GOIM (Gruppo Oncologico dell’Italia Meridionale) prospective study G. Gargano1#, V. Agnese1#, V. Calo`1, S. Corsale1, C. Augello1, L. Bruno1, L. La Paglia1, A. Gullo2, L. Ottini3, A. Russo1, F. Fulfaro1, G. Rinaldi1, A. Crosta1, G. Cicero1, O. Majorana1, L. Palmeri4, C. Cipolla5, A. Agrusa6, G. Gulotta6, V. Morello2, G. Di Fede1, V. Adamo7, G. Colucci8, R. M. Tomasino2, M. R. Valerio1, V. Bazan1 & Antonio Russo1* 1 Section of Medical Oncology and 5Section of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgical and Oncology,Universita` di Palermo; 2Cattedra di Oncologia Medica, Deparment od Surgery and Oncology, Universita` di Palermo; 3Department of Human Pathology, Universita` di Palermo; 4Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Patologia, Universita` di Roma ‘La Sapienza’; 6Unit of General Surgery, Universita` di Palermo; 7Unit of Medical Oncology, A.O.Universitaria Policlinico ‘G.Martino’, Universita` di Messina; 8Division of Medical Oncology, National Institute of Oncology, Bari, Italy
rarely in other tissue. The aim of this study was to assess the sensitivity and specificity of transcript MGB1 detection and to evaluate the role of MGB1 as potential clinical marker for the detection of disseminated cancer cells in the blood of BC patients. Patients and methods: A consecutive series of 23 BC tissues, 36 peripheral blood BC samples and 35 healthy peripheral blood samples was prospectively recruited to investigate MGB1 expression by means of a quantitative Real Time RT-PCR assay. Results: MGB1 overexpression in tissue samples of BC patients is significantly associated only with high level of Ki67 (P 50 16 (73) Mean age in years (range) 63.3 (35–81) Tumor histotype Infiltrating ductal 20 (91) Infiltrating lobular 0 Infiltrating ductal and lobular 2 (9) Medullar 0 Lymph node metastasis Negative 11 (50) Positive 11 (50) Histological grade Well-differentiated (G1) 2 (9) Moderately-differentiated (G2) 11 (50) Poorly-differentiated (G3) 9 (41) Estrogen receptors Negative 8 (36) Positive 14 (64) Progesterone receptors Negative 8 (36) Positive 14 (64) c-ERB Negative 11 (50) Positive 11 (50) Ki67 £20 % 10 (45) >20 % 12 (55) Total 22
BC peripheral blood patients n (%) 11 (31) 25 (69) 58 (38–82) 24 10 1 1
(67) (27) (3) (3)
19 (53) 17 (47) 1 (3) 20 (55) 15 (42) 13 (36) 23 (64) 13 (36) 23 (64) 19 (53) 17 (47) 19 (53) 17 (47) 36
mRNA expression was detected in three of 36 (8%) of peripheral blood BC patients (Table 3). We used the detection of PPIA mRNA in all reactions to exclude the fact that the absence of hMAM expression was due to degraded RNA. Figure 2A shows the amplification plot for MGB1 expression of one of the three positive samples, while Figure 2B shows the MGB1 expression plot of all the three positive samples.
discussion Even though a great deal of progress has been made in the chemotherapy strategies used in BC patients, especially in advanced tumors, leading to considerable improvement in life style and survival rate, surgical resection remains the most effective treatment for avoiding disease recurrence. Even so, the post-operative clinical course of these patients may be negatively affected by the presence of micrometastases circulating in peripheral blood, not easy to detect with traditional anatomopathological techniques [15]. The main clinicopathological factor to take into consideration in BC treatment is the TNM staging. In particular, a key role is represented by the T and N values, which indicate tumor size and lymph node involvement, thus giving an idea of tumor aggressiveness [16].
Volume 17 | Supplement 7 | June 2006
Figure 1. Amplification plot obtained by the ABI PRISM 7900 HT for MGB1 and PPIA mRNA expression in BC tissue samples relatives to the tissues with minor (A) and major (B) MGB1 expression. (C) MGB1 expression plot of 22 BC tissue samples. Table 2. Association between mammaglobin expression and Ki67 value in 22 breast cancer tissues Ki67
Low n (%)
High n (%)
P value
£20% >20% Unknown Total
6 (55) 2 (18) 3 (27) 11
3 (27) 8 (73) 0 11
