RICERCA DI MICROMETASTASI LINFONODALI IN PAZIENTI CON NSCLC. ANALISI MOLECOLARE DEL CEA MRNA MEDIANTE REAL TIME RT-PCR E VALUTAZIONE DEL SUO VALORE PROGNOSTICO

Malignant tumors of epithelial are the most frequent category of malignancy, and are a major cause of death in developed countries. The most common diseases are those involving cancers of the respiratory system. The more aggressiveis form is represented by non-small cell carcinomas (NSCLC). The RT-PCR has greater sensitivity in identifying lymph node micrometastases, while also achieving a higher specificity if it is carried out to quantify the target of interest by Real Time PCR. Leveraging the versatility of CEA mRNA as a marker for lymph node micrometastases, it was decided to develop a system of quantification in real-time PCR able to: obtain a high sensitivity/specificity; lead to a speeding up of diagnostic time and the detection of the disease in its early stage; allow you to customize and improve the quality of care and outcome in advanced stage. Considering separately patients histologically N0, N1 and N2 were obtained the following results: 15 of 58 histologically N0 patients were positive for the molecular investigation, obtaining a P <0.05%; 7 of 10 histologically N1 patients were positive to molecular analysis, obtaining a P <0.05%; 13 histologically N2 patients of 13 were positive to molecular analysis, showing a 100% concordance between the two diagnostic methods. The molecular analysis has allowed the restaging of 21 patients: 5 N0 patients were restaging N1, 10 N0 patients were restaging N2 and 6 N1 patients with stage N1 were restaging N2.