EPCAM and neoplasm: EpCAM, CEACAM5 and CK19 mRNA detection in histologically tumour-free MLNs revealed that 60 out of 80 lymph nodes were positive for EpCAM, 60 for CEACAM5, and 51 for CK19, whereas 49 (61.25%) were found positive for all three genes (Fig. 1). We considered the lymph nodes micrometastatic, where all three markers were positive.