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Tumor Cell Contamination

Occult tumor cell contamination in patients with stage II/III breast cancer receiving sequential high-dose chemotherapy

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 32, pages 1059–1064 (2003)Cite this article

Summary:

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the presence of micrometastatic cells in the apheresis products from patients with breast cancer, and also to determine if repeated infusion of contaminated products had any clinical impact. A total of 94 patients with high-risk breast cancer were enrolled in a prospective single center study to evaluate the use of dose-intensified chemotherapy (doxorubicine 75 mg/m2 and cyclophosphamide 3000 or 6000 mg/m2 for four cycles) with repeated (× 2) stem cell reinfusion. All women were monitored for the presence of metastatic cells in aphereses, collected after first course of intensive chemotherapy, and following additional mobilization with rhG-CSF. Epithelial cells were screened with monoclonal antibodies directed to cytokeratin. Eight of the 94 patients had detectable tumor cells in one or several aphereses collected after intensive chemotherapy; this was unrelated to other tumor characteristics, including size, histology, Scarff Bloom and Richardson (SBR) grading (presence or absence of hormone receptors). Hemato-poietic reconstitution was similar in the cells from these eight patients, and in the total patient population. Three of these eight patients relapsed. This study has confirmed that contamination of apheresis products remains a rare event, which does not seem to affect clinical evolution, even when reinfused into the patient.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by special grants from the ‘Association pour la Recherche sur le cancer’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Marseille, France

    F Viret, D Genre, A Gonçalves, G Gravis, F Bertucci, A C Braud, D Maraninchi & P Viens

  2. Department of Gene Therapy, Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Marseille, France

    C Chabannon

  3. Department of Hematology Laboratory, Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Marseille, France

    D Sainty & C Arnoulet

  4. Department of Surgery, Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Marseille, France

    G Houvenaeghel

  5. Department of Anatomopathology, Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Marseille, France

    J Jacquemier

  6. Department of Statistics, Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Marseille, France

    V J Bardou

  7. Department of Cellular Bioengineering Cytapheresis, Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Marseille, France

    P Ladaique

  8. Univ. Méditerranée, IFR, Marseille, France

    D Maraninchi & P Viens

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Correspondence to F Viret.

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Viret, F., Chabannon, C., Sainty, D. et al. Occult tumor cell contamination in patients with stage II/III breast cancer receiving sequential high-dose chemotherapy. Bone Marrow Transplant 32, 1059–1064 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1704283

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