Abstract: BACKGROUND ＆ AIM： To study the significance of C-met mRNA in axillary drainage after operations for breast cancer． MATERIAL AND METHODS： RT-PCR assay was used to examine the expression of C-met mRNA and human glyceraldehydes-3-phosphate dehydrogenase(hGAPDH) in axillary drainage after operations in 32 cases of breast cancer，The relationship between the expression of C-met and the tumor size and the numbers of lymph nodes metastasis and the Estrogen receptor(ER) and Progesterone receptor(PR) status was analyzed． RESULTS：①The overall positive expression rate of C-met in axillary lymphatic drainage was 84.38 ％，which was higher than that in routine pathological method of the axillary lymph nodes to detect micrometastasis(P<0.05)，and the positive cases of C-met expression were correlated with the numbers of metastatic lymph nodes．②Positive cases for C-met expression were correlated with the tumor size (P<0.01)．③C-met negative cases showed the tendency of negative correlations with ER and PR negative cases． CONCLUSION： Detection of C-met mRNA in axillary drainage after operation for breast cancer using RT-PCR，the positive cases suggest existence of micrometastasis of cancer cells in the lymphatic of chest wall of breast cancer patients and there was a potential of recurrence and metastasis．The study suggests that it could be earlier and more accurate to detect micrometastasis using RT-PCR of the axillary lymphatic drainage for C-met expression in the axillary fluids than routine pathological method on the axillary lymph nodes．

Key words: RT-PCR, breast cancer, C-met