Minimal residual disease assessment of papillary thyroid carcinoma through circulating tumor cell‐based cytology

Innaro, Nadia; Gervasi, Rita; Ferrazzo, Teresa; Garo, Nastassia C; Curto, Lucia Stella; Lavecchia, Annamaria; Aquila, Isabella; Donato, Giuseppe; Malara, Natalia

doi:10.1002/cam4.4813

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 35 publications

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“…With respect to FNA, blood-derived cytological specimens can be obtained at the same time of taking other blood-based laboratory tests. Cytological preparations obtained with the Charactex protocol were deemed as comparable to traditional FNA preparations, as recently reported in thyroid cancer cases [20]. Our experience with a vast number of neoplasms in which both samples were available confirms this view.…”

Section: Ctcs Cytology and Conventional Cytological/ Histological Pre...supporting

confidence: 83%

The Charactex Protocol for Blood-Derived Cytological Preparation of Nonhematological Cancer

Malara¹,

Donato²,

Ferrazzo³

et al. 2022

Acta Cytologica

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Introduction: Liquid biopsy, especially when performed by the isolation, expansion, and examination of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from peripheral blood, has become an innovative and transforming diagnostic tool in Clinical Oncology. The CTCs have already entered the clinical practice as an alternative method to invasive tumor biopsy for detecting postsurgical and/or posttreatment minimal residual disease, to predict cancer recurrence and real-time treatment response. In this context, the retrospective observational project, known as CHARACTEX, has permitted to state that it is possible to exploit blood-based cytologic samples through short-term culture and in vitro CTC expansion. Methods: This method is based initially on a gradient-sedimentation technique, which impoverishes without completely depriving the obtained sample from the hematological cells, followed by short-term (14 days) in vitro culture and expansion and cytomorphological and flow cytometric analysis to investigate whether the expanded cell population possesses proliferative advantage and fits with criteria, which are consistent to the known primary tumor. Results: The originality of this method is that, apart from the above exposed criteria, there is no selection bias for the isolation of the cells from peripheral blood (like immunomagnetic bead treatment or preliminary immunocytochemistry), which can potentially introduce some limitation to the cell population under evaluation. Conclusion: The examination of the expanded cell population obtained by this method is very rewarding for both the pathologist – who can assess multiple tumor-related variables (like immunocytochemistry, flow cytometry of several parameters, and molecular pathology on cell suspensions and cell blocks obtained from them) – and the clinician.

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Section: Ctcs Cytology and Conventional Cytological/ Histological Pre...supporting

confidence: 83%

The Charactex Protocol for Blood-Derived Cytological Preparation of Nonhematological Cancer

Malara¹,

Donato²,

Ferrazzo³

et al. 2022

Acta Cytologica

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Minimal residual disease assessment of papillary thyroid carcinoma through circulating tumor cell‐based cytology

et al. 2022

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The overall estimated risk of recurrence after an apparently complete thyroid cancer resection ranges from <1% to 55%, and the high-quality pathology report is crucial for proper risk stratification. The neck ultrasound (US) and serum thyroglobulin (Tg) and anti-Tg antibody (TgAb) assays are the mainstays for Differentiated Thyroid Cancer (DTC) follow-up. However, the neck US includes a high frequency of nonspecific findings and despite the serum, Tg unmasks the presence of thyrocytes, it is not discriminating between normal and malignant cells. In this study, to improve post-surgery follow-up of minimal residual disease in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) patients, blood-derived cytology specimens were evaluated for the presence of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). The presence of CTCs of thyroid origin was confirmed by cytomorphological and tissue-specific antigens analysis (Thyroid Transcription Factor-1/TTF-1 and Tg) and proliferative profile (percentage of cells in S-phase). Our data revealed an unfavorable' prognostic risk in patients with >5% CTCs (p = 0.09) and with >30% S-phase cells at baseline (p = 0.0015), predicting ≤1 year relapsing lesion event. These results suggest a new intriguing frontier of precision oncology forefront cytology-based liquid biopsy.

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Distinctive phenogroup to differentiate diagnosis of cardiac myxoma vs cardiovascular disease examining blood-based circulating cell biomarkers

Donato,

Mignogna,

Santise

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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Cardiac myxoma (CM) is a potentially life-threatening disease because frequently asymptomatic or debuts with aspecific manifestations. Definitive diagnosis is established by histopathological assessment including tumor and endothelial cell markers. To derive a specific panel of circulating cells antigenically detectable, pre-surgery peripheral blood samples of CM patients were analyzed. Pre-surgery peripheral blood samples from patients with CM were simultaneously analyzed for Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and circulating endothelial cells (CECs) that were matched with tumor tissue profiles and with patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) distinguishing tumor regions. Moreover, CECs values in CM patients were further matched with CEC’s levels in cardiovascular disease and control subjects. The blood-derived cytological specimens detected at least 1–3 CTCs/ml in 10 tested CM samples (p = 0.0001) showing specific CM features preserved in the central zones of the tumor. The central zone of the primary tumor, supported by a vessel density rate (55 ± 7%), with a proliferative profile of 32 ± 3% and a percentage of Calretininpos cells (p = 0.03), is the principal site of CTCs (r = 00) dissemination. The subsets of endothelial cells recognized in the blood were indifferent to their topological distribution within the tumor and corresponding PDXs. With further refinement and validation in large cohorts, multiparametric liquid biopsies can optimally integrate clinically informative datasets and maximize their utility in pre-surgery evaluation of CM patients. Blood-derived culture’s protocol provides a versatile method capable of viable analysis of CTCs of non-hematological rare tumors which conventional antibody-mediated analytical platform is unable to perform. Distinctive blood- based cell phenotype contributes to differentiate CM from other differentials assuring its prompt surgical resection by combining blood-based cell biomarkers integrated with clinically informative datasets.

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Minimal residual disease assessment of papillary thyroid carcinoma through circulating tumor cell‐based cytology

Cited by 5 publications

References 35 publications

The Charactex Protocol for Blood-Derived Cytological Preparation of Nonhematological Cancer

The Charactex Protocol for Blood-Derived Cytological Preparation of Nonhematological Cancer

Minimal residual disease assessment of papillary thyroid carcinoma through circulating tumor cell‐based cytology

Distinctive phenogroup to differentiate diagnosis of cardiac myxoma vs cardiovascular disease examining blood-based circulating cell biomarkers

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