OBJECTIVE: To detect tumor cell contamination of peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) and the presence of tumor cells in peripheral circulating blood in patients with primary advanced ovarian cancer.METHODS: To establish limits of sensitivity of the immunocytochemical stainings technique (ABC method) for tumor cell detection, four types of ovarian cancer tumor cell(ovarian cancer cell lines SKOV3, 3AO, primary cancer cell from ascites of serous papillary carcinoma and undifferentiated adenocarcinoma) were added into normal blood to prepare the models with different ratios of tumor cells to mononuclear cells. Monoclonal antibodies(MAB) of COC 183 B2, CK(AE1/AE3) and their cocktail antibody (mixture of them) were used for immunocytochemical stainings. 14 blood specimens were examined (6 stem cell blood specimens, 8 primary advanced ovarian cancer blood spcimens).RESULTS: The sensitivity of detection achieved by cocktail antibodies was superior to either COC183B2 or CK MAb alone. The sensitivity of cocktail antibody was 1:5 x 10(5). According to the established sensitivity, none of the fourteen specimens contained tumor cell.CONCLUSIONS: None of the 6 PBSC specimens obtained from 2 patients and eight peripheral blood specimens obtained from 8 patients with primary ovarian epithelial carcinoma contained tumor cell.
Adenocarcinoma Aged