The combination of mammaglobin A and TWIST-1 increases detection of circulating tumor cells in breast cancer.

GALLUCCI, GEORGINA; MASSA, ESTEFANIA; CAPITAINE FUNES, CARLOS; TOZZINI, ROBERTO; GHERSEVICH, SERGIO

JORNAL BRASILEIRO DE PATOLOGIA E MEDICINA LABORATORIAL

Sociedade Brasilera de Patologia Clinica e Medicina Laboratorial

Lugar: Río de Janeiro; Año: 2020

1676-2444

Cancer cells that are released into the bloodstream are called circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and their detection has been associated with worse disease prognosis. The CTCs could express different genes, such as TWIST-1 and mammaglobin A (MGA). The aim of this study was to analyze the expression of TWIST-1 and MGA in peripheral blood of breast cancer patients to investigate the presence of CTCs. In addition, the association between the presence of CTCs and prognostic parameters of breast cancer was assessed. Methods: This is a prospective study where blood nucleated cells were isolated from samples from breast cancer patients (n=36, age: 5.5 + 12.5 years) and healthy donors (n=14; age: 49.4 + 9.4 years). Real-time RT-PCR was performed to analyse the expression of TWIST-1 and MGA genes. Types of neoplasia were ductal (86.7%), lobular (6.7%), mucinous (3,3%), mixed (3.3%). Results: MGA gene expression was not detecte din healthy donor´ samples, while its expression was detected in 14% of the patient samples. Overexpression of TWIST-1 gene was observed in 17% of the patient samples. The combined analysis of both markers allowed the detection of CTCs in 27.8% of the samples, resulting in a significant (p0.05) were found between the expression of each analyzed gene and the prognostic factors for breast cancer. Conclusions: Combined analysis of TWIST-1 and MGA expression increased the sensitivity of CTCs detection compared to the single analysis of each gene. The detection of CTCs was not associated with known prognostic factors, suggesting that it could provide additional clinical information than to the routine clinicopathological parameters used for breast cancer.