As a result of increased mammography screening programs, the majority of patients with breast cancer in recent years present with early-stage disease because the screening-detected tumors are significantly smaller than symptomatic or palpable tumors and frequently without axillary lymph node involvement. Metastatic involvement in the axillary lymph nodes is a powerful prognostic factor. Although the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (2005) has shown a direct relationship between the number of involved nodes and the clinical outcome; nearly 30% of patients with node-negative breast cancer will present distant recurrence and will die as a result of their disseminated disease. This observation suggests that despite the general model of tumor cell dissemination, through the lymphatogenous route in the regional lymph nodes, there is also a direct haematogenous tumor cell dissemination that bypasses the lymphogenous. Thus, breast cancer detection at early stages does not ensure the definitive cure due to unpredictable invasiveness and metastatic potential of tumor cells.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Aaltomaa, S., Lipponen, P., Eskelinen, M., Kosma, V.M., Marin, S., Alhava, E., and Syrjanen, K. 1992. Mitotic indexes as prognostic predictors in female breast cancer. J. Cancer Res. Clin. Oncol. 118: 75–81
Adair, F., Berg, J., Joubert, L., and Robbins, G.F. 1974. Long-term followup of breast cancer patients: the 30-year report. Cancer 33: 1145–1150
Anker, P., Mulcahy, H., Chen, X.Q., and Stroun, M. 1999. Detection of circulating tumour DNA in the blood (plasma/serum) of cancer patients. Cancer Metastasis Rev. 18: 65–73
Baak, J.P., van Diest, P.J., Voorhorst, F.J., der Wall, E., Beex, L.V., Vermorken, J.B., Janssen, E.A., and Gudlaugsson, E. 2007. The prognostic value of proliferation in lymph node-negative breast cancer patients is age dependent. Eur. J. Cancer 43: 527–535
Balic, M., Lin, H., Young, L., Hawes, D., Giuliano, A., McNamara, G., Datar, R.H., and Cote, R.J. 2006. Most early disseminated cancer cells detected in bone marrow of breast cancer patients have a putative breast cancer stem cell phenotype. Clin. Cancer Res. 12: 5615–5621
Braun, S. and Pantel, K. 1999. Biological characteristics of micrometastatic cancer cells in bone marrow. Cancer Metastasis Rev. 18: 75–90
Braun, S., Vogl, F.D., Naume, B., Janni, W., Osborne, M.P., Coombes, R.C., Schlimok,G., Diel, I.J., Gerber, B., Gebauer, G., Pierga, J.Y., Marth, C., Oruzio, D., Wiedswang, G., Solomayer, E.F., Kundt, G., Strobl, B., Fehm, T., Wong, G.Y., Bliss, J., Vincent-Salomon, A., and Pantel, K. 2005. A pooled analysis of bone marrow micrometastasis in breast cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. 353: 793–802
Brown, R.W., Allred, C.D., Clark, G.M., Osborne, C.K., and Hilsenbeck, S.G. 1996. Prognostic value of Ki-67 compared to S-phase fraction in axillary node-negative breast cancer. Clin. Cancer Res. 2: 585–592
Bryant, J., Fisher, B., Gunduz, N., Costantino, J.P., and Emir, B. 1998. S-phase fraction combined with other patient and tumor characteristics for the prognosis of node-negative, estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res. Treat. 51: 239–253
Carter, C.L., Allen, C., and Henson, D.E. 1989. Relation of tumor size, lymph node status and survival in 24,740 breast cancer cases. Cancer 63: 181–187
De Placido, S., De Laurentiis, M., Carlomagno, C., Gallo, C., Perrone, F., Pepe, S., Ruggiero, A., Marinelli, A., Pagliarulo, C., Panico, L., Pettinato, G., Petrella, G., and Bianco, A.R. 2003. Twenty-year results of the Naples GUN randomized trial: predictive factors of adjuvant tamoxifen efficacy in early breast cancer. Clin. Cancer Res. 9: 1039–1046
Donegan, W.L. (1997) Tumor-related prognostic factors for breast cancer. C.A. Cancer J. Clin. 47: 28–51
Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group. 1998. Tamoxifen for early breast cancer: an overview of the randomized trials. Lancet 351: 1451–1467
Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group. 2005. Effects of chemotherapy and hormonal therapy for early breast cancer on recurrence and 15-year survival: an overview of the randomized trials. Lancet 365: 1687–1717
Fehm, T., Becker, S., Becker-Pergola, G., Sotlar, K., Gebauer, G., Durr-Storzer, S., Neubauer, H., Wallwiener, D., and Solomayer, E.F. 2006. Presence of apoptotic and non apoptotic disseminated tumor cells reflect response to neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NST) in breast cancer. Breast Cancer. Res. 8: R60
Hu, X.C., Loo, W.T., and Chow, L.W. 2003. Surgery related shedding of breast cancer cells as determined by RT-PCR assay. J. Surg. Oncol. 82: 228–232
Lambrechts, A.C., Bosma, A.J., Klaver, S.G., Top, B., Perebolte, L., van' t Veer, L.J., and Rodenhuis, S. 1999. Comparison of immuno-cytochemistry, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, and nucleic acid sequence-based amplification for the detection of circulating breast cancer cells. Breast Cancer Res. Treat. 56: 219–231
Le Doussal, V., Tubiana-Hulin, M., Friedman, S., Hacene, K., Spyratos, F., and Brunet, M. 1989. Prognostic value of histologic grade nuclear components of Scarff-Bloom-Richardson (SBR). An improved score modification based on a mul-tivariate analysis of 1262 invasive ductal breast carcinomas. Cancer 64: 1914–1921
Lee, A.H., Pinder, S.E., Macmillan, R.D., Mitchell, M., Ellis, I.O., Elston, C.W., and Blamey, R.W. 2006. Prognostic value of lymphovascular invasion in women with lymph node negative invasive breast carcinoma. Eur. J. Cancer 42: 357–362
McGuire, W.L. 1991. Breast cancer prognostic factors: evaluation guidelines. J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 83: 154–155
McGuire, W.L., Tandon, A.K., Allred, D.C., Chamness, G.C., and Clark, G.M. 1990. How to use prognostic factors in axillary node-negative breast cancer patients. J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 82: 1006–1015
Press, M.F., Bernstein, L., Thomas, P.A., Meisner, L.F., Zhou, J.Y., Ma, Y., Hung, G., Robinson, R.A., Harris, C., El-Naggar, A., Slamon, D.J., Phillips, R.N., Ross, J.S., Wolman, S.R., and Flom, K.J. 1997. HER-2/neu gene amplification characterized by fluorescence in situ hybridization: poor prognosis in node-negative breast carcinomas. J. Clin. Oncol. 15: 2894–2904
Ravdin, P.M. 2001. Is Her2 of value in identifying patients who particularly benefit from anthracy-clines during adjuvant therapy? A qualified yes. J. Natl. Cancer Inst. Monogr. 30: 80–84
Roetger, A., Merschjann, A., Dittmar, T., Jackisch, C., Barnekow, A., and Brandt, B. 1998. Selection of potentially metastatic subpopulations expressing c-erbB-2 from breast cancer tissue by use of an extravasation model. Am. J. Pathol. 153: 1797–1806
Ruud, P., Fodstad, O., and Hovig, E. 1999. Identification of a novel cytokeratin 19 pseudog-ene that may interfere with reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assays used to detect micrometastatic tumor cells. Int. J. Cancer 80: 119–125
Seidman, A.D., Fornier, M., Esteva, F.J., Tan, L., Kaptain, S., Bach, A., Panageas, K.S., Arroyo, C., Valero, V. , Currie, V., Gilewski, T., Theodoulou, M., Moynahan, M.E., Moasser, M., Sklarin, N., Dickler, M., D'Andrea, G., Cristofanilli, M., Rivera, E., Hortobagyi, G.N., Norton, L., and Hudis, C. 2001. Weekly trastuzumab and paclitaxel therapy for metastatic breast cancer with analysis of efficacy by HER2 immunophe-notype and gene amplification. J. Clin. Oncol. 19: 2587–2595
Sidransky, D. 1997. Nucleic acid-based methods for the detection of cancer. Science 278: 1054–1059
Stathopoulou, A., Vlachonikolis, I., Mavroudis, D., Perraki, M., Kouroussis, C., Apostolaki, S., Malamos, N., Kakolyris, S., Kotsakis, A., Xenidis, N., Reppa, D., and Georgoulias, V. 2002. Molecular detection of cytokeratin-19-positive cells in the peripheral blood of patients with operable breast cancer: evaluation of their prognostic significance. J. Clin. Oncol. 20: 3404–3412
Thiery, J.P. 2002. Epithelial-mesenchymal transitions in tumour progression. Nat. Rev. Cancer 2: 442–454
Thurm, H., Ebel, S., Kentenich, C., Hemsen, A., Riethdorf, S., Coith, C., Wallwiener, D., Braun, S., Oberhoff, C., Janicke, F., and Pantel, K. 2003. Rare expression of epithelial cell adhesion molecule on residual micrometastatic breast cancer cells after adjuvant chemotherapy. 9: 2598–2604
Wiedswang, G., Borgen, E., Schirmer, C., Karesen, R., Kvalheim, G., Nesland, J.M., and Naume, B. 2006. Comparison of the clinical significance of occult tumor cells in blood and bone marrow in breast cancer. Int. J. Cancer. 118: 2013–2019
Xenidis, N., Vlachonikolis, I., Mavroudis, D., Perraki, M., Stathopoulou, A., Malamos, N., Kouroussis, C., Kakolyris, S., Apostolaki, S., Vardakis, N., Lianidou, E., and Georgoulias, V. 2003. Peripheral blood circulating cytok-eratin-19 mRNA-positive cells after the completion of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with operable breast cancer. Ann. Oncol. 14: 849–55
Xenidis, N., Perraki, M., Kafousi, M., Apostolaki, S., Bolonaki, I., Stathopoulou, A., Kalbakis, K., Androulakis, N., Kouroussis, C., Pallis, T., Christophylakis, C., Argyraki, K., Lianidou, E.S., Stathopoulos, S., Georgoulias, V. , and Mavroudis, D. 2006. Predictive and prognostic value of peripheral blood cytokeratin-19 mRNA-positive cells detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction in node-negative breast cancer patients. J. Clin. Oncol. 24: 3756–3762
Yamauchi, H., Stearns, V., and Hayes, D.F. 2001. When is a tumor marker ready for prime time? A case study of c-erbB-2 as a predictive factor in breast cancer. J. Clin. Oncol. 19: 2334–2356
Zieglschmid, V., Hollmann, C., and Bocher, O. 2005. Detection of disseminated tumor cells in peripheral blood. Crit. Rev. Clin. Lab. Sci. 42: 155–196
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer Science + Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Xenidis, N., Perrakis, M., Kakolyris, S., Mavroudis, D., Georgoulias, V. (2008). Node-Negative Breast Cancer: Predictive and Prognostic Value of Peripheral Blood Cytokeratin-19 mRNA-Positive Cells. In: Hayat, M.A. (eds) Methods of Cancer Diagnosis, Therapy and Prognosis. Methods of Cancer Diagnosis, Therapy and Prognosis, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8369-3_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8369-3_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-8368-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-8369-3
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)