Epithelial circulating tumor cells with a heterogeneous phenotype are associated with metastasis in NSCLC
Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology(2021)
摘要
Objectives To analyze the clinical relevance of heterogeneous phenotypes of peripheral circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Materials and Methods CTCs in 5 mL venous blood were enriched using the Canpatrol™ CTC technique in 82 NSCLC patients. And then, CTCs were subjected to RNA in situ hybridization with a combination of epithelial (EpCAM and CK8/18/19) and mesenchymal (vimentin and TWIST1) markers. Results According to the fluorescent dots, CTCs were classified into three groups, including epithelial CTCs (E-CTC), hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal phenotypes (E/M-CTCs) and mesenchymal CTCs (M-CTCs). In 82 NSCLC cohort, only 2 patients didn’t detect CTCs, the overall CTCs detection rate was 97.5% (80/82). For 60 treatment naïve NSCLC, only one patient didn’t detect CTCs. The median number of total CTCs, hybrid E/M phenotype CTCs, E-CTCs and M-CTCs per 5 mL blood was 22 (range 1–90), 13 (range 0–83), 1 (range 0–17 and 0–47), respectively. Hybrid E/M CTCs, especially the e = m-CTCs, significantly differed between patients with and without distant metastasis. M-CTCs in advanced NSCLC patients were significantly more than the numbers observed in early stage patients. Patients with pure hybrid E/M-CTCs showed a lower proportion in distant metastasis positive cohort compared to negative ones (7% vs 22%), while patients with E + E/M CTCs (20% vs 9%) and E/M + M CTCs (33% vs 20%) showed a higher proportion. CTCs dynamic changes after treatment in 12 advanced NSCLC patients suggested that hybrid E/M-CTCs were related to the primary tumor size at baseline, while M-CTCs may suggest the progression of NSCLC. Conclusion We concluded that E-CTCs with a hybrid E/M phenotype are associated to metastasis in therapy-naïve NSCLC patients.
更多查看译文
关键词
NSCLC, E-CTCs, E/M-CTCs, EMT, Metastasis
AI 理解论文
溯源树
样例
生成溯源树,研究论文发展脉络
Chat Paper
正在生成论文摘要