Intraoperative dissemination of tumour cells in patients with Ewing tumours detected by RT-PCR.

ABSTRACT

Using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) we evaluated the occurrence of tumour-cell ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the blood during surgery in patients with Ewing tumours. The patients received irradiation and chemotherapy according to the protocol of the European Intergroup Cooperative Ewing Sarcoma Study (EICESS) 92. Blood samples were taken from 15 patients. Intra-operative dissemination was found during 2/8 resections but showed no relation to patient survival. At second-look biopsy, detection of tumour-cell RNA was associated with relapse and metastases in 3/4 patients. The results suggest that pre-operative treatment did not completely prevent dissemination of tumour cells during surgery of Ewing tumours.