Tumor Cell Purging by Ex Vivo Expansion of Hemopoietic Stem Cells from Breast Cancer Patients Combined with Targeting ErbB Receptors

Quantitation of tumor contamination on MPB harvest. Mammaglobin amplification curves on reconstitution experiments with SKBR3 cells and peripheral mononuclear cells (curves from 1 SKBR3/10 mononuclear cells to 1 SKBR3/10⁶ mononuclear cells from a healthy donor) and on 5 (from patient 1 to patient 5) MPB collections derived from breast cancer patients are shown. NTC indicates no template control. RN indicates reporter fluorescence normalized to internal control.

Effect of trastuzumab on cocultures of SKBR3 cells and hemopoietic precursor cells. Representative amplification curves are shown of GAPDH (control gene) and MAM (target gene) obtained by mammaglobin (MAM) quantitative reverse transcriptase-PCR in coculture of SKBR3 tumor cells and normal progenitor cells. Cells were analyzed before (T0) and after 2 weeks in the presence (+T) or absence (−T) of trastuzumab. NTC indicates no template control. RN indicates reporter fluorescence normalized to internal control.