Long term survival following the detection of circulating tumour cells in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

BMC Cancer

Table 3 Comparison of the attachment of immunobeads coated with antibodies BerEP4 and EMA to cells from four HNSCC cell lines.

	BerEP4		EMA
Cell line	Cells with beads attached (%)	Average number of beads attached/cell	Cells with beads attached (%)	Average number of beads attached/cell
FaDu	100 ± 0	6.4 ± 3.1	51.0 ± 5.0	2.1 ± 1.3
Detroit	98 ± 2	7.0 ± 3.9	13.7 ± 4.2	1.4 ± 0.7
SCC-9	100 ± 0	10.0 ± 2.0	61.5 ± 2.5	2.4 ± 1.1
SCC-25	100 ± 0	13.0 ± 4.0	30.0 ± 2.0	1.4 ± 0.5

Cells were incubated with either BerEP4- or EMA-conjugated beads and a sample viewed using a light microscope. The BerEP4 antibody recognises the EpCam protein and the EMA antibody recognises Muc1/EMA/Mucin 1. The total number of cells and the number of these cells with beads attached were counted and the results are presented as a percentage of cells with beads attached. The average number of beads attached per cell was also determined.

ISSN: 1471-2407