• Shang-Mian Yie, Bie Luo, Nai-Yao Ye, Ke Xie, and Shang-Rong Ye.
• Chengdu Bio-Engineering Institute for Cancer Research, Chengdu, Sichuan, PR China. shangmian.yie@gmail.com
• Clin. Exp. Metastasis. 2006 Jan 1; 23 (5-6): 279-89.

AbstractSurvivin mRNA expression was detected in 69.2%-93.8% of primary breast carcinomas, but is rarely expressed in normal breast tissues and hematopoietic cells. The objective of this study was to investigate the significance that the detection of Survinin-expressing circulating breast cancer cells in the peripheral blood has on clinical outcomes. The detection method was based on a RT-PCR ELISA technique developed in our laboratory. Sixty-seven breast cancer patients in various stages and 135 normal healthy women were investigated. Survivin-expressing circulating cancer cells were detected in the peripheral blood samples from 34 (50.7%) out of 67 breast cancer patients, but not in the healthy women that were used as controls. The presence of Survivin-expressing circulating breast cancer cells was found to be significantly associated with various clinicopathological parameters such as vessel infiltration, histological grade, tumor size, nodal status, ER/PgR status, Her-2 status and clinical stages of the disease (P < 0.01). During a follow-up period of 36 months, 9 out of 11 (81.8%) breast cancer patients that had a positive Survivin-expressing at the time of the initial assay test suffered a relapse of the disease, whereas recurrence was only found in 2 out of 6 (33.3%) breast cancer patients that had a negative Survivin-expression. Thus, the detection of circulating cancer cells expressing Survivin mRNA could provide valuable information for the prediction of metastasis and recurrence of breast cancer.

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