Thomsen-Friedenreich Antigen – Prognostic Factor in Primary Breast Cancer Tissue, Expression on Disseminated Tumor Cells and Target for Immunomagnetic Enrichment

Introduction: The Thomsen-Friedenreich (TF) antigen is a specific oncofetal carbohydrate epitope (Galb1–3GalNAca-O-epitope) expressed on the surface of various carcinomas. It mediates endothelium adhesion and tumor invasion and could by this be a marker of aggressiveness. The presence of disseminated tumor cells in the bone marrow of breast cancer patients (DTC-BM) also indicates worse prognosis. We therefore examined the expression of TF in primary breast cancer tissue and on DTC-BM. Additionally, TF was examined as a target for the immunomagnetic enrichment of DTC-BM. Methods: TF expression was examined immuno…