RESEARCH OF CK19 MRNA IN LYMPH NODE DETECTION OF EARLY STAGE CERVICAL CANCER WITH MICRO-METASTASES

[Objective] Through detecting the expression of CK19 mRNA in sentinel lymph nodes of early stage cervical cancer,to investigate the role of CK19 mRNA in detection of micro-metastases.[Methods] ① 30 patients with cervical cancer were evaluated.All patients were treated by radical hysterectomy and lymphadenectomy at the Department of Gynecological Oncology in The Third Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical College(Yunnan Province Tumor Hospital) from Dec,2007 to Dec,2008.② Sentinel lymph nodes were identified with radioactivity isotope and methylene blue.Expression of CK19 mRNA was detected by RT-PCR in sentinel lymph node of the early stage cervical cancer.[Results] ① 55 sentinel lymph nodes were examined in 30 cases of cervical cancer.Histopathologic examinations demonstrated the presence of metastases in 8(14.5%) sentinel lymph nodes of 8 patients.However,RT-PCR detected the expression of CK19 in 18(32.7%) sentinel lymph nodes of 13 patients.RT-PCR identified the expression of CK19 in 10(21.3%) histologically uninvolved sentinel lymph nodes that were negative by HE staining,these samples were confirmed to have micro-metastases.Histopathology and RT-PCR were significantly different in detection of positive rate of micro-metastases(P﹤0.05).② CK19 mRNA was significantly related to histopathology type(P﹤0.05).[Conclusion] Detection of CK19 mRNA can help us to find the micro-metastases in lymph nodes early.