Abstract Background Epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) has been used as surrogate marker 5-Piece Dining Set for the quantification of circulating tumour cells (CTC).Our aim was to prospectively study the value of a real-time RT-PCR assay for EpCAM detection in the peripheral blood and peritoneal cavity of patients undergoing pancreatectomy for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).Methods From 48 patients with PDAC (40 resectable, 8 unresectable) and 10 patients with chronic pancreatitis undergoing pancreatectomy 10 ml of venous blood was drawn preoperatively (PB) and postoperatively (POB, day 1 (D1B), day 7 (D7B) and after 6 weeks (6WB).Of all patients undergoing pancreatectomy, 40 ml peritoneal lavage fluid was taken preoperatively and postoperatively.A real-time RT-PCR assay Leave in conditioner (TaqMan, ABI Prism 7700) was developed for the detection of EpCAM mRNA.
To discriminate between EpCAM-positive and negative samples a cut-off was applied.Median postoperative follow-up was 24.0 months (range: 0.7 - 41.3).
Results PB was EpCAM-positive (+) in 25% of patients versus 65% of patients in POB (p At none of the time-points, an association was found between EpCAM positivity in blood and/or peritoneal cavity and cancer-specific or disease-free survival.Also, no significant associations were found between clinicopathological variables and perioperative EpCAM positivity.Conclusions Despite a significant increase in EpCAM counts in postoperative blood and peritoneal lavage fluid this was not associated with worse prognosis after pancreatectomy for PDAC.Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00495924.