@entity0 is the most common @entity5 affecting @entity1 . Advances in screening have resulted in an increasing trend towards detecting earlier stage @entity5 associated with a longer disease-free survival. Because of this prolonged latency period, it is critical to identify @entity1 early in their disease course who are at increased risk for recurrence, whereby treatment decisions may be altered accordingly based on more precise information. Molecular markers that demonstrate prognostic importance as well as utility for assessing subclinical disease progression offer one such approach. Specifically, circulating microsatellite alterations that reflect those genetic events occurring in @entity5 and that can be serially assessed through a minimally invasive procedure are a logistically practical method. In this study, serum was collected preoperatively from 56 @entity1 with early @entity0 (AJCC stages I/II) and assessed for loss of heterozygosity (LOH) using 8 microsatellite markers. Twelve (21%) of 56 @entity1 demonstrated LOH in their serum for at least one marker. Histopathologic correlation revealed an association between the presence of circulating LOH in serum and those @entity5 with increased proliferation indices as characterized by an increased diploid index, elevated @entity1758 fraction, and abnormal ploidy. These findings demonstrate the presence of circulating microsatellite alterations in the serum from @entity1 with early @entity0 . The association of known poor prognostic features found in @entity5 with increased nuclear activity not only suggests a possible etiology for their presence, but also offers a potential blood-based surrogate marker for this disease that may demonstrate clinical utility in long-term follow-up studies.

Microsatellite alterations detected in the serum of early @entity0 XXXX .

@entity5 :: ('MESH:D009369', 'Disease') :: ['malignancy', 'tumors'] @entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['women', 'patients'] @entity0 :: ('MESH:D001943', 'Disease') :: ['Breast cancer', 'stage breast cancer'] @entity1758 :: ('57534', 'Gene') :: ['MIB-1']
@entity1 :: (9606,Species) :: ['patients']
