Expression of CK19 and MUC-1 mRNA in the peripheral blood of patients with colorectal cancer and their clinical significances

WANG Qian; LIU Jie; AN Zewu

Abstract：Objective To explore the expression of cytokeratin ( CK) 19 and mucin ( MUC)-1 mRNA in the peripheral blood of patients with colorectal cancer ( CRC) and their relationship with clinicopathological parameters. Methods The levels of CK19 and MUC-1 were measured by nested reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction ( RT-PCR) in the peripheral blood of 20 healthy hu-man volunteers ( Healthy group ) , 20 patients with benign colorectal adenomas ( Benign disease group ) and 90 patients with CRC ( CRC group) . The correlations between levels of CK19 and MUC-1 mRNA and clinicopathological parameters of CRC ( Dukes stage, differentiation, distant metastasis and histological type) were analyzed. Results The positive rate of CK19 mRNA was 58?9% ( 53/90) of CRC group, higher than 0 of Healthy group and 5?0% ( 1/20) of Benign disease group with significant difference ( P<0?05) . The positive rates of MUC-1 mRNA were 52?2% ( 47/90) , 60?0% ( 12/20) and 50?0% ( 10/20) for CRC group, Healthy group and Benign disease group with no significant difference ( P>0?05) . No significant differences were observed between Healthy group and Be-nign disease group on positive rates of CK19 mRNA and MUC-1mRNA. The positive rates of CK19 mRNA and MUC-1 mRNA were re-lated with Dukes stage, differentiation and distant metastasis, and non-related with histological type (P<0?05). Conclusion The positive rate of CK19 mRNA in CRC increased, and CK19 and MUC-1 mRNA related with the Dukes stage, differentiation and distant metastasis, which may play an important role in the development of CRC.