Department of Cell Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10666 North Torrey Pines Road, GAC-1200, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Phys Biol. 2012 Feb;9(1):016001. doi: 10.1088/1478-3975/9/1/016001. Epub 2012 Feb 3.
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have been implicated as a population of cells that may seed metastasis and venous thromboembolism (VTE), two major causes of mortality in cancer patients. Thus far, existing CTC detection technologies have been unable to reproducibly detect CTC aggregates in order to address what contribution CTC aggregates may make to metastasis or VTE. We report here an enrichment-free immunofluorescence detection method that can reproducibly detect and enumerate homotypic CTC aggregates in patient samples. We identified CTC aggregates in 43% of 86 patient samples. The fraction of CTC aggregation was investigated in blood draws from 24 breast, 14 non-small cell lung, 18 pancreatic, 15 prostate stage IV cancer patients and 15 normal blood donors. Both single CTCs and CTC aggregates were measured to determine whether differences exist in the physical characteristics of these two populations. Cells contained in CTC aggregates had less area and length, on average, than single CTCs. Nuclear to cytoplasmic ratios between single CTCs and CTC aggregates were similar. This detection method may assist future studies in determining which population of cells is more physically likely to contribute to metastasis and VTE.
循环肿瘤细胞 (CTCs) 被认为是一种可能引发转移和静脉血栓栓塞 (VTE) 的细胞群体，而转移和 VTE 是癌症患者死亡的两个主要原因。到目前为止，现有的 CTC 检测技术无法重复检测 CTC 聚集物，以确定 CTC 聚集物可能对转移或 VTE 有何影响。我们在这里报告了一种无需富集的免疫荧光检测方法，该方法可重复性地检测和计数患者样本中的同质 CTC 聚集物。我们在 86 名患者样本中的 43%中发现了 CTC 聚集物。我们还研究了来自 24 名乳腺癌、14 名非小细胞肺癌、18 名胰腺癌、15 名前列腺癌四期患者和 15 名正常献血者的血液样本中的 CTC 聚集分数。我们测量了单个 CTC 和 CTC 聚集物，以确定这两个群体的物理特征是否存在差异。CTC 聚集物中的细胞平均面积和长度较小。单个 CTC 和 CTC 聚集物之间的核质比相似。这种检测方法可能有助于未来的研究确定哪种细胞群体更有可能引发转移和 VTE。
