Cancer Marker Detects 100% of Breast Cancer Metastases

The new marker, called Recaf, is found in malignant cells from a variety of cancer types but is absent in most normal or benign cells.

In a study, the diagnostic kit Histo-Recaf was tested on 20 tissue samples. The original diagnosis was done by standard staining techniques, and then Histo-Recaf was used. The nonmalignant lymph nodes did not exhibit false positive staining. In the metastatic lymph nodes, seven of 10 nodes showed a moderate-to-strong cytoplasmic staining of the malignant cells, and the remaining three cases showed a weaker but still positive staining. The identification of malignant cells within lymph nodes is very important because it determines the staging of the patient and also the prognosis.

A current difficulty with standard staining techniques is that a small number of cancer cells within a lymph node may not be evident. The same applies if the cancer cells are numerous but very dispersed within the lymph nodes. The strong color difference between cancer and normal cells achieved with the Histo-Recaf allows a pathologist to find malignant cells quickly and easily.

"These findings are commercially significant, since practically all mastectomies are accompanied by multiple lymph node biopsies and therefore the number of slides to be tested per patient increases accordingly,” said Dr. Moro, president of BioCurex (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, USA), which developed the Histo-Recaf kit.




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