The clinical value of detecting circulating tumour cells in the peripheral blood of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients

Abstract

The aim of the present study as to analyse the associations between circulating tumour cells (CTCs) and the clinical parameters of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Peripheral blood (7.5 ml) from 68 first-diagnosed NPC patients was collected to detect and identify CTCs by cluster of differentiation (CD)45 immunomagnetic separation. Immunofluorescent staining of cytokeratin-18, CD45 and DAPI, and fluorescence in situ hybridization were combined with the centromere of chromosome 8 (CEP8) probe method to analyse the associations between CTCs and clinical parameters. One-year follow-up of the NPC patients who received standardized treatment was also performed to analyse the associations between CTCs, tumour development and the treatment effect. The detection rate of CTCs in the 68 NPC patients was 98.5% and the positive rate of CTCs was 60.3%. The positive rates of CTCs in the I–III and IV stage patients were 51.1 and 78.3%, respectively; the rate was 90.0% in the M1 stage and 55.2% in the M0 stage. The differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). The mean CTC counts were 3.86±2.36 and 5.70±2.91 in the M0 and M1 stages, respectively, which was significantly different (P=0.031). The 12-month follow-up record suggested tumour progression for 17 patients, and the one-year progress free survival rate was 74.6%. Among the CTC-positive stages III–IV patients, the disease progression rate of the patients who had received treatment including chemotherapy/intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) was 83.3%, which was higher than that of the patients who received treatment including chemotherapy/IMRT/chemotherapy, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The results of the present study suggested that CTCs were closely associated with the stages of NPC. The later clinical stages may have higher CTC-positive rates for NPC. Treatment with chemotherapy/IMRT/chemotherapy may be more effective for CTC-positive patients in stages III–IV than the use of chemotherapy/IMRT.

Prognostic value of circulating tumor cells and its association with the expression of cancer stem cells in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients

“…Most of the studies revealed that CTC was characterized by CD45-CEP8+cells in NPC [37][38][39]. In this study, CTCs were detected using immunostaining of DAPI, CD45 and CEP8.…”

Clinical utility of Epstein‐Barr virus DNA and other liquid biopsy markers in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

“…CTCs have been explored to be possibly linked to survival [111], although a head‐to‐head comparison by Vo et al. [39] showed that pre‐treatment EBV DNA was better associated to survival than pre‐treatment CTC.…”

<p>Epstein-Barr Virus-Encoded Products Promote Circulating Tumor Cell Generation: A Novel Mechanism of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Metastasis</p>

“…23 In clinical cases of NPC, CTCs were closely associated with NPC stage, with later clinical stages associated with higher CTCpositive rates. 24 Therefore, CTCs may serve as biomarkers for monitoring the therapeutic efficacy of treatments for NPC. 25 Studies have shown that EBV proteins participate in NPC metastasis, 26,27 and recent reports suggested that EBV may be involved in CTC generation.…”