<p>Evaluation of therapeutic efficacy with CytoSorter^®, circulating tumor cell–capture system in patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma</p>

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of utilizing CytoSorter® system to detect circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and clinical value of CTCs in patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (LAHNSCC). Methods: 31 patients with LAHNSCC, 12 healthy volunteers, and 6 patients with benign tumor serving as controls were enrolled in this study. CTCs were enriched with the CytoSorter®, a microfluidic based immune capture system. CTC detection was performed before and after induction chemotherapy, as well as after surgery and/or radiotherapy. Correlations between CTC enumerations at different time points and survival outcome and recurrence risk were evaluated. The correlation between CTCs and clinicopathological characteristics was appraised. Follow-up of patients continued until March 2019. Results: While CTCs were not found in the controls, they were detected in 24 of 31 LAHNSCC patients. CTCs could be used to distinguish diseased people from the healthy ( P <0.0001). CTCs were statistically associated with patient age ( P =0.037, >60 years old vs<60 years old) and lymph node metastasis ( P = 0.034, N0N1 VS N2N3). Most patients had significantly reduced CTCs at the end of treatment. Patients with partial remission of tumor after induction therapy had more CTCs than those with complete remission of tumor. Patients with higher CTCs counts prior to treatment had higher chance of developing local recurrence of tumor after treatment ( P =0.0187). Conclusion: CTCs were successfully isolated in LAHNSCC patients using CytoSorter® system with better sensibility. CTCs can be used to differentiate LAHNSCC patients from those with benign HNSCC tumor or healthy volunteers, and as markers to monitor patient’s response to treatment and predict the local tumor recurrence after treatment. CTC detection at baseline has the greatest prognostic potency in LAHNSCC patients.

Evaluation of the diagnostic value of circulating tumor cells with CytoSorter® CTC capture system in patients with breast cancer

“…Circulating tumor cells were enriched by CytoSorter ® epithelial cells detection kit. Circulating tumor cell detection procedure was described as in the previous study . In brief, the CytoChipNano was first coated with EpCAM capture Ab before placing onto CytoSorter ® system.…”

“…Circulating tumor cell detection procedure was described as in the previous study. 19 In brief, the CytoChipNano was first coated with EpCAM capture Ab before placing onto CytoSorter ® system. Aforementioned PBMCs sample solution was then transferred into SCx spiral sample tube.…”

“…Therefore, we decided to use CytoSorter ® CTCs detection system in this study and to evaluate its diagnostic potency in BC. The clinical application of CytoSorter ® has been reported in pancreatic cancer and head and neck cancers . CytoSorter ® technology employs the positive selection utilizing a streptavidin nanoarray on CytoChipNano, which can be coated with any desired biotin‐labeled capture antibody (Ab), and immunofluorescence staining, to capture and identify CTCs.…”

Comparison of circulating tumor cell (CTC) detection rates with epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) and cell surface vimentin (CSV) antibodies in different solid tumors: a retrospective study

“…Epithelial CTCs are identified as PanCK-positive, CD45-negative and DAPI-positive cells, while mesenchymal CTCs are identified as CSV-positive, CD45-negative and DAPI-positive cells. CTC detection procedure was following the manufacturer protocol and was described in the previous study ( Wei et al, 2019 ; Zheng et al, 2019 ). An epithelial CTC was identified as a PanCK-FITC+, CD45-PE−, and DAPI+ cell, while a mesenchymal CTC was identified as a CSV-FITC+, CD45-PE−, and DAPI+ cell.…”

Evaluation of circulating tumor cells as a prognostic biomarker for early recurrence in stage II–III breast cancer patients using CytoSorter® system: a retrospective study

“…The microfluidic chip can be coated with any biotin-labeled capture antibody to enrich desired cells. The most common CTC capture antibody is anti-epithelial cell adhesion molecules (EpCAM) CytoSorter ® CTC system has been validated in BC ( Jin et al, 2020 ), head and neck cancer ( Zheng et al, 2019 ), pancreatic cancer ( Wei et al, 2019 ) and lung cancer ( Xie et al, 2021 ). CytoSorter ® has CTC detection rates over 90% in stage II–III BC patients ( Jin et al, 2020 ), much higher than the CellSearch ® system ( Eroglu, Fielder & SomLo, 2013 ).…”