A novel DNA marker associated with breast metastasis

681 Background: Differentiating primary breast tumors that are prone to develop metastasis (Group-I) from those that are not (Group-II) is critical to design appropriate treatments. Previously we isolated several metastasis associated DNA sequences (MADSs) and recently published that MADS-IX and -XI are informative in more than 60% of cases by PCR screening. Our previous attempts to supplement the PCR method with Fluorescence In Situ hybridization (FISH) for screening MADS-IX on primary tumor tissue sections were not consistent due to overlapping of cells and unclear cellular margins. Here we present our results with MADS-IX as a FISH probe in distinguishing the Group-I and Group-II primary breast tumors by screening tumor cell touch preparations. Methods: The DNA samples from primary and metastatic tumor cells isolated from 12 breast carcinoma patients had been compared with the matching normal cell DNA by the Representational Difference Analysis (RDA) and isolated 15 MADSs. Tumor cells were isolated by ...