Key words: carcinoembryonic antigen; staurosporine; colorectal cancer; micrometastasis; immunobead RT-PCR Dear Sir, Staurosporine (ST) is a potent inhibitor of protein kinase C. This agent is able to induce apoptosis, affecting cell cycle progression and modulating the activity of cyclin-dependent kinases in a large variety of tumors. 1,2 Moreover, ST was found to increase the expression of the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in epithelial tumor cell lines of different tissue origin. This effect is particularly evident at concentrations that do not provoke cytotoxicity or cell cycle perturbation. 3,4 The increase of CEA is detected both at the level of protein expression and gene transcription. On this basis, it has been hypothesized that ST might be utilized to increase the sensitivity of methods based on CEA transcript recognition, which is presently employed to detect CEA-positive circulating tumor cells.CEA is a tumor marker that is expressed in a number of tumors of different origin, including gastrointestinal, lung and breast cancer. 5 At present, measurement of serum CEA levels is mainly used to monitor tumor progression during postsurgery follow-up of patients affected by colorectal cancer. However, it has been demonstrated that about 50% of colorectal cancers are not associated with increased serum CEA levels. 6 Moreover, no correlation has been found between CEA content in tumor tissue and CEA serum levels, and not all CEA positive tumors shed the antigen into circulation. 7 Therefore, in a substantial number of cases this antigen cannot be considered a suitable marker for the detection of sub-clinical residual disease.A number of studies provided evidence that RT-PCR based methods for the detection of CEA positive circulating cancer cells are highly sensitive and specific. 8 -11 Of particular interest are the findings that detection of CEA-expressing circulating tumor cells in patients negative for 3 serum markers for colorectal cancer preceded clinical evidence of the disease. 8 Moreover, it has been recently demonstrated that serial examination of CEA mRNA levels might contribute to predict tumor relapse in advanced gastric cancer. 11 No data are presently available in the literature on large randomized prospective studies concerning the clinical value of CEA mRNA detection by RT-PCR analysis in the peripheral blood of cancer patients. However, it can be hypothesized that long-term follow-up of patients by this approach might be helpful for predicting relapse or for monitoring response to therapy.Limitations of this technique have also been reported in terms of possible false positive results, when RNA was extracted from whole blood and a large number of nested PCR cycles (Յ30 cycles) were used. 12,13 Moreover, a limited percentage of untreated patients with metastatic or recurrent colorectal cancer has been found to be negative for CEA mRNA. 8 Recently, it has been demonstrated that specificity of RT-PCR detection of CEA-positive cancer cells admixed with peripheral blood from healthy donors can...