Abstract
The specificity and sensitivity of the nested reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) on tyrosinase was studied, for the detection of micrometastases of malignant melanoma. The specificity was assessed in the blood of six healthy donors, four patients with non-melanoma cancers of which one patient was treated with granulocyte-colony stimulating factor. Lymph nodes of nine patients without malignant melanoma were tested and four cell lines of various other tumours. Six of the nine non-melanoma lymph nodes were positive in this assay. The sensitivity was tested in a spike experiment in vitro, using a melanoma cell line. The detection limit was ten melanoma cells per 107 peripheral blood lymphocytes. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
Change history
16 November 2011
This paper was modified 12 months after initial publication to switch to Creative Commons licence terms, as noted at publication
References
Andrews PW, Damjanov I, Simon D, Banting GS, Carlin C, Dracopoli NC and Fogh J (1984) Pluripotent embryonal carcinoma clones derived from the human teratocarcinoma cell line tera-2. Differentiation in vivo and in vitro. J Lab Invest 50: 147–162
Battyani Z, Xerri L, Hassoun J, Bonerandi JJ and Grob JJ (1993) Tyrosinase gene expression in human tissues. Pigment Cell Res 6: 400–405
Bautista NC, Cohen S and Anders KH (1994) Benign melanocytic nevus cells in axillary lymph nodes: a prospective incidence and immunohistochemical study with literature review. Am J Clin Pathol 102: 102–108
Berendsen HH, De Ley L, De Vries EGE, Mesander G, Mulder NH, De Jong B, Buys CHCM, Postmus PE, Poppema S, Sluiter HJ and The HT (1988) Characterization of three small cell lung cancer cell lines established from one patient during longitudinal follow-up. Cancer Res 48: 6891–6899
Bieligk SC, Ghossein R, Bhattacharya S and Coit DG (2000) Detection of tyrosinase mRNA by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in melanoma sentinel nodes. Ann Sur Oncol 6: 232–240
Blaheta H-J, Schittek B, Breuninger H, Maczey E, Kroeber S, Sotlar K, Ellwanger U, Thelen MH, Rassner G, Bultmann B and Grabe C (1998) Lymph node micrometastases of cutaneous melanoma: increased sensitivity of molecular diagnosis in comparison to immunohistochemistry. Int J Cancer 79: 318–323
Brossart P, Schmier JW, Kruger S, Willhauck M, Scheibenbogen C, Moler T and Keilholz U (1995) A polymerase chain reaction-based semiquantitative assessment of malignant melanoma cells in peripheral blood. Cancer Res 55: 4065–4068
Buzaid AC and Balch CM (1996) Polymerase chain reaction for detection of melanoma in peripheral blood: too early to assess clinical value. J Natl Cancer Inst 88: 590–594
Chelly J, Concordet JP, Kaplan JC and Khan A (1989) Illegitimate transcription: transcription of any gene in any cell type. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 86: 2617–2621
Curry BJ, Myers K and Hersey P (1998) Polymerase chain reaction detection of melanoma cells in the circulation: relation to clinical stage, surgical treatment, and recurrence from melanoma. J Clin Oncol 16: 1760–1769
De Vries TJ, Fourkour A, Punt CJA, Van de Locht LTF, Wobbes T, Van den Bosch S, De Rooij MJM, Mensink EJBM, Ruiter DJ and Van Muijen GNP (2000) Reproducibility of detection of tyrosinase and MART-1 transcripts in the peripheral blood of melanoma patients: a quality control study using real-time quantitative RT-PCR. Br J Cancer 80: 883–891
Farthmann B, Eberle J, Krasagakis K, Gstottner M, Wang N, Bisson S and Orfanos CE (1998) RT-PCR for tyrosinase-mRNA-positive cells in peripheral blood: evaluation strategy and correlation with known prognostic markers in 123 melanoma patients. J Invest Dermatol 110: 263–267
Foss AJE, Guille MJ, Occleston NL, Hykin PG, Hungerford JL and Lightman S (1995) The detection of melanoma cells in peripheral blood by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Br J Cancer 72: 155–159
Ghossein RA, Coit D, Brennan M, Zhan ZF, Wang Y, Bhattacharya S, Houghton A and Rosai J (1998) Prognostic significance of peripheral blood and bone marrow tyrosinase messenger RNA in malignant melanoma. Clin Cancer Res 4: 419–428
Gläser R, Rass K, Seiter S, Hauschild A, Christopers E and Tilgen W (1997) Detection of circulating melanoma cells by specific amplification of tyrosinase complementary DNA is not a reliable tumour marker in melanoma patients: a clinical two-centre study. J Clin Oncol 15: 2818–2825
Goydos JS, Ravikumar TS, Germino FJ, Yudd A and Bancila E (1998) Minimally invasive staging of patients with melanoma: sentinel lymphoadenectomy and detection of the melanoma-specific proteins MART-1 and tyrosinase by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. J Am Coll Surg 187: 182–190
Hatta N, Takata M, Takehara K and Ohara K (1998) Polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry frequently detect occult melanoma cells in regional lymph nodes of melanoma patients. J Clin Pathol 51: 597–601
Hoon DSB, Wang Y, Dale PS, Conrad AJ, Schmid P, Garrison D, Kuo C, Foshag LJ, Nizze AJ and Morton DL (1995) Detection of occult melanoma cells in blood with a multiple-marker polymerase chain reaction assay. J Clin Oncol 13: 2109–2116
Jung FA, Buzaid AC, Ross MI, Woods KV, Lee JJ, Albitar M and Grimm EA (1997) Evaluation of tyrosinase mRNA as a tumour marker in the blood of melanoma patients. J Clin Oncol 15: 2826–2831
Leibovitz A, Stinson JC, McCombs (III)WB, McCoy CE, Mazar KC and Mabry ND (1976) Classification of human colorectal adenocarcinoma cell lines. Cancer Res 36: 4562–4569
Mellado B, Colomer D, Castel T, Munoz M, Carballo E, Galan M, Mascaro’ JM, Vives-Corrons JL1, Grau JJ and Estape’ J (1996) Detection of circulating neoplastic cells by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction in malignant melanoma: association with clinical stage and prognosis. J Clin Oncol 14: 2091–2097
Palmieri G, Strazzullo M, Ascierto PA, Satriano SMR, Daponte A and Castello G (2000) Polymerase chain reaction-based detection of circulating melanoma cells as an effective marker of tumour progression. J Clin Oncol 17: 304–31
Rankin EM (1996) Detection of micrometastases in malignant melanoma. Eur J Cancer 32A: 1627–1629
Reinhold U, Ludtke-Handjery H-C, Schnautz S, Kreysel H-W and Abken H (1997) The analysis of tyrosinase-specific mRNA in blood samples of melanoma patients by RT-PCR is not a useful test for metastatic tumour progression. J Invest Dermatol 108: 166–169
Rogan AM, Hamilton TC, Young RC, Klecker RW and Ozols RF (1984) Reversal adriamycin resistance by verapamil in human ovarian cancer. Science 65: 994–996
Smith B, Selby P, Southgate J, Pittman K, Bradley C and Blair GE (1991) Detection of melanoma cells in peripheral blood by means of reverse transcriptase and polymerase chain reaction. Lancet 338: 1227–1229
Van der Velde-Zimmermann D, Roijers JFM, Bouwens-Rombouts A, De Weger RA, De Graaf PW, Tilanus MGJ and Van den Tweel JG (1996) Molecular test for the detection of tumour cells in blood and sentinel nodes of melanoma patients. Am J Pathol 149: 759–764
Wang X, Heller R, VanVoorhis N, Cruse CW, Glass F, Fenske N, Berman C, Leo-Messina J, Rappaport D, Wells K, DeConti R, Moscinski L, Stankard C, Puleo C and Reintgen D (1994) Detection of submicroscopic lymph node metastases with polymerase chain reaction in patients with malignant melanoma. Ann Surg 6: 768–774
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
From twelve months after its original publication, this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
About this article
Cite this article
Calogero, A., Timmer-Bosscha, H., Koops, H. et al. Limitations of the nested reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction on tyrosinase for the detection of malignant melanoma micrometastases in lymph nodes. Br J Cancer 83, 184–187 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1054/bjoc.2000.1282
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1054/bjoc.2000.1282
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Expression of human papilloma virus type 16 E5 protein in amelanotic melanoma cells regulates endo-cellular pH and restores tyrosinase activity
Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research (2009)
