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Detection of MAGE-A3 in breast cancer patients’ sentinel lymph nodes
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  • Regular Article
  • Open access
  • Published: 30 October 2001

Detection of MAGE-A3 in breast cancer patients’ sentinel lymph nodes

  • R A Wascher1,
  • P J Bostick1,2,
  • K T Huynh1,
  • R Turner3,
  • K Qi4,
  • A E Giuliano2 &
  • …
  • D S B Hoon1 

British Journal of Cancer volume 85, pages 1340–1346 (2001)Cite this article

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Abstract

The detection of occult metastatic breast cancer cells by RT-PCR is limited by the poor specificity of most tumour mRNA markers. MAGE-A3 is a highly specific tumour mRNA marker that is not expressed in non-cancer cells. This study assesses MAGE-A3 mRNA as a molecular marker for the detection of tumour cells in the sentinel lymph nodes (SLN) of breast cancer patients. Serial frozen sections of SLN (n= 121) were obtained from 77 AJCC (American Joint Committee on Cancer) Stage I–IIIA breast cancer patients. MAGE-A3 mRNA analysis of SLN was performed by RT-PCR and Southern blot analysis. Tumour cells were detected in 48 of 121 (40%) SLN from 77 patients by H&E or IHC staining, and 35 of 77 (45%) patients, overall, had histopathologically (H&E and/or IHC) positive SLN. Among histopathologically negative SLN, 28 of 73 (38%) SLN were MAGE-A3 mRNA positive by RT-PCR. Overall, 41 of 77 (53%) patients and 50 of 121 (41%) SLN were positive for MAGE-A3. MAGE-A3 mRNA expression in the SLN occurred more frequently with infiltrating lobular carcinoma (P< 0.001) than with infiltrating ductal carcinoma, adding further evidence of possible phenotypic differences between these 2 subtypes of breast cancer. Due to its high specificity, MAGE-A3 mRNA is a potentially useful marker for detecting breast cancer cells in the SLN. One half of breast tumours expressed MAGE-A3 mRNA, which has important potential implications for antigen-specific targeted immunotherapy. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.com

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  • 16 November 2011

    This paper was modified 12 months after initial publication to switch to Creative Commons licence terms, as noted at publication

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Oncology, John Wayne Cancer Institute, Saint John’s Health Center, Santa Monica, 90404, CA

    R A Wascher, P J Bostick, K T Huynh & D S B Hoon

  2. Joyce Eisenberg-Keefer Breast Center, John Wayne Cancer Institute, Saint John’s Health Center, Santa Monica, 90404, CA

    P J Bostick & A E Giuliano

  3. Department of Pathology, John Wayne Cancer Institute, Saint John’s Health Center, Santa Monica, 90404, CA

    R Turner

  4. Division of Biostatistics, John Wayne Cancer Institute, Saint John’s Health Center, Santa Monica, 90404, CA

    K Qi

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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/

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Wascher, R., Bostick, P., Huynh, K. et al. Detection of MAGE-A3 in breast cancer patients’ sentinel lymph nodes. Br J Cancer 85, 1340–1346 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1054/bjoc.2001.2079

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  • Received: 01 December 2000

  • Revised: 16 July 2001

  • Accepted: 23 July 2001

  • Published: 30 October 2001

  • Issue date: 02 November 2001

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1054/bjoc.2001.2079

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Keywords

  • breast cancer
  • MAGE-A3
  • micrometastases
  • RT-PCR
  • sentinel lymph node

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