Objective To identify micrometastasis in regional lymph nodes of gastric cancer by quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) assay and to evaluate the clinical significance of micrometastasis. Methods To study 320 lymph nodes collected from January 2010 to June 2010， 281 of which were from 40 patients with gastric cancer who had undergone a standard gastrectomy with lymphadenectomy， and other 39 of which were from 10 patients with gastroduodenal ulcer. Made CEA， CK-19， and CK-20 as primers， and used qRT-PCR assay in addition to hematoxylin and eosin staining to detect the micrometastasis， and to analyze the clinicopathologic characteristics.Results Totally， micrometastasis were detected by qRT-PCR assay in 31 (15.34%，31/202) lymph nodes of 28 (70.00%， 28/40) patients. Thirty-nine lymph nodes from 10 patients with gastroduodenal ulcer were negative by qRT-PCR and HE staining. The degree of differentiation， depth of gastric mural invasion， and clinical stage had statistically significant correlation with the incidence of lymph node micrometastasis (P＜0.05). Conclusions qRT-PCR assay is a sensitive and specific method to detect lymph node micrometastasis in gastric cancer patients，and it has importantly clinical significance in evaluating clinical staging，prognosis and treatment prescription.
Objective To evaluate the potential of specific mRNA marker keratin 19(K19) to detect micrometastasis by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) .Methods One hundred and ninty four regional lymph nodes harvested from 6 cases of benign diseases, 4 cases of breast carcinoma, 5 cases of gastric carcinoma and 12 cases of colorectal carcinoma patients were examined by conventional pathology and amplifying tissue specific K19 mRNA by RT-PCR separately, then the two methods were compared with each other. Results None of the 34 lymph nodes which were pathological metastasis-negative from benign diseases expressed K19 mRNA by RT-PCR, all of the 28 regional lymph nodes which were pathological metastasis-positive from malignant cases showed trains of K19 mRNA by RT-PCR. Of the 132 lymph nodes which were pathological metastasis-negative from malignant cases, 11 lymph nodes were detected with micrometastasis by genetic diagnosis.Conclusion Genetic diagnosis of lymph node micrometastasis is more sensitive than conventional pathology and has diagnostic value and merits further study.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the lymphatic tracing effects of nano-carbon particles for radical gastrectomy. MethodsTotally eighty-six cases of gastric cancer patients were randomly divided into experimental group (n=43) and control group (n=43). In the experimental group, nanocarbon was injected into the subserosa around the tumor for lymphatic tracing before operation, while no tracer was given in the control group. Then the number of lymph nodes dissected, operation time, and postoperative complications of patients were compared. ResultsThe number of lymph nodes dissected in patients of experimental group was 30.20±11.63 (17-45), which was significantly more than that of control group 〔22.47±7.60 (15-31)〕, Plt;0.05. The blacken rate of lymph nodes in patients of the experimental group was 74.56% (1 260/1 690). Of 302 metastatic lymph nodes, the blacken rate of metastatic lymph nodes was 61.26% (185/302), which was significantly higher than the nonblacken rate of metastatic lymph nodes (38.74%, 117/302), Plt;0.05. The operation time of patients in experimental group 〔(3.51±0.43) h〕 was not different from that in control group 〔(3.49±0.51) h〕, Pgt;0.05. The postoperative complications of patients in two groups was not different and no local or systemic adverse reaction occurred in patients of experimental group. ConclusionSubserosal injection of nanocarbon particles around the tumor is safe and can provide the guidance to lymph node dissection in radical gastrectomy.