Rare expression of epithelial cell adhesion molecule on residual micrometastatic breast cancer cells after adjuvant chemotherapy.

Abstract

Our results indicate that disseminated breast cancer cells in BM can survive first-line adjuvant chemotherapy. Ep-CAM expression is, however, restricted to a subset of these cells, which may limit the broad applicability of Ep-CAM as target for second-line adjuvant therapy in breast cancer.