Collection and processing of bone marrow samples
tumor
TUMOR
Bone marrow samples were aspirated at baseline (before the beginning of neoadjuvant chemotherapy). In case of DTC-positivity, patients were subjected to a follow-up bone marrow aspiration during surgery. Isolation of the mononuclear cell (MNC) fraction from bone marrow was performed according to the recommendations for standardized tumor cell detection published by the German Consensus Group of Senology [