Solid markers are lacking to predict cancer recurrence or cancer progression before being measurable with conventional or modern diagnostic imaging. Molecular techniques such as the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique have proven to be a highly sensitive method and a powerful tool in the study of cancer metastasis (Raj GV, Moreno JG, Gomella LG. Utilization of Polymerase Chain Reaction Technology in the Detection of Solid Tumors. Cancer 1998; 82: 1419-42). The prognostic relevance of circulating cancer cells in patients with pancreatic cancer is hardly studied. In patients with breast cancer the number of circulating cancer cells expressing EpCAM (epithelial cell adhesion molecule) has proven to be an independent predictor of progression-free and overall survival (Cristofanilli M, Budd GT, Ellis MJ, Stopeck A, Matera J, Miller MC, Reuben JM, Doyle GV, Allard WJ, Terstappen LW, Hayes DF. Circulating tumor cells, disease progression, and survival in metastatic breast cancer. N Engl J Med 2004; 351: 781-91). EpCAM is a marker present on most epithelial cell tumours and frequently overexpressed in primary and metastatic adenocarcinoma including pancreatic cancer (Rao CG, Chianese D, Doyle GV, Miller MC, Russell T, Sanders RA Jr, Terstappen LW. Expression of epithelial cell adhesion molecule in carcinoma cells present in blood and primary and metastatic tumors. Int J Oncol 2005; 27: 49-57). Also, other markers such as CEA, CK20, K-ras have been used to detect disseminated pancreatic cancer cells. In patients with colorectal carcinoma circulating cancer cells in peripheral or in mesenteric venous blood as detected by RT-PCR, using CEA and CK20 mRNA transcripts, seem to represent a prognostic factor (Yamaguchi K, Takagi Y, Aoki S, Futamura M, Saji S. Significant detection of circulating cancer cells in the blood by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction during colorectal cancer resection. Ann Surg 2000; 232: 58-65. Guller U, Zajac P, Schnider A, Bösch B, Vorburger S, Zuber M, Spagnoli GC, Oertli D, Maurer R, Metzger U, Harder F, Heberer M, Marti WR. Disseminated single tumor cells as detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction represent a prognostic factor in patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer. Ann Surg 2002; 236: 768-76).