Objective: The aim of the study was to explore the individual detection significances of small breast epithelial mucin (SBEM) and human mammaglobin (hMAM) in peripheral blood (PB) of breast cancer patients. Methods: SBEM and hMAM expressions in PB samples of 109 primary breast cancer patients were detected by flow cytometry (FCM) and RT-PCR. Relationship between the biomarkers' expression and prognostic parameters were analyzed. Results: SBEM and hMAM expressions in PB of breast cancer patients were much higher than those of healthy donors and other cancer patients. SBEM and hMAM expressed in 53.2% (50/94) and 39.4% (37/94) cases at stages Ⅰ-Ⅲ and expressed in 73.3% (11/15) and 46.7% (7/15) cases at stage IV respectively. SBEM and hMAM mRNA were only detected in PB samples of breast cancer patients, while no expression of them was found in that of healthy donors and other cancer patients. Conclusion: hMAM mRNA detection maybe helpful to predict hematogenous micrometastasis in ER-positive, well-differentiated breast cancers and SBEM mRNA detection maybe helpful to predict hematogenous micrometastasis in ER-negative, poorly-differentiated breast cancers.
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