Detection of cancer cells disseminated in bone marrow using real-time quantitative RT-PCR of CEA, CK19, and CK20 mRNA in patients with gastric cancer

Background To determine the significance of bone marrow disseminated tumor cells in gastric cancer, we investigated the mRNA expression levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cytokeratin 19 (CK19), and cytokeratin 20 (CK20) using the real-time quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RQ-PCR).