PURPOSE The detection of disseminated occult breast cancer cells in peripheral blood and bone marrow is associated with poor prognosis. Since a high proportion of these cells express the HER-2 receptor, we evaluated the effectiveness of the anti-HER-2 antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin) administration to eliminate them. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Thirty patients with prior chemotherapy exposure were re...

In this article, the development of a new TaqMan-based one-step real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay for detection and quantification of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) RNA is described. Selected oligos targeting the highly conserved S region of CCHFV were designed by using our oligo design and analysis software, Oligoware 1.0. None of the prime...

PURPOSE Reverse-transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) assays for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) have been described to identify lymph node micrometastases. These assays are not quantitative and can be confounded by false-positive results. The purpose of this study was to determine whether quantification of CEA in lymph nodes could more readily identify clinically relevant groups. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Spe...

Detection of African horsesickness virus (AHSV) by three different reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) based methods were compared. Primers were complementary to sequences contained in the gene encoding non-structural protein 2 of AHSV serotype 3. All three assays were group-specific for AHSV and detected all nine serotypes but not related orbiviruses. A dilution range was ...

Background: Bovine leukaemia virus (BLV) is the primary cause of enzootic bovine leukaemia which belongs to the HTLV/BLV group of oncogenic retroviruses including Human T-cell leukaemia virus types 1, 2, and 3 and simian T-lymphotropic virus. Due to daily consumption of milk, meat and other dairy by-products, a possible role in appearing human cancers can be assumed for BLV. Materials and Metho...

Accurate staging is an important issue in managing patients with prostate cancer. Current staging modalities are poor predictors for locally advanced disease. In the present study, we investigated the role of a peripheral blood-based, nested reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSM) in prostate cancer staging. Our nested ...

For detecting Borna disease virus (BDV) genomic stranded RNA, single-tube reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (St RT-PCR) was developed to equal the sensitivity of RT-nested PCR but with reduced risk of contamination. BDV-genomic stranded RNA was synthesized in vitro using plasmid cDNA of BDV p24 region as a template and RNA was also extracted from BDV-persistently infected MDCK (MD...