Department of Thoracic and Cardio-Vascular Surgery, Nara Medical University School of Medicine, Kashihara, Japan;
Department of Diagnostic Pathology, Nara Medical University School of Medicine, Kashihara, Japan.
Anticancer Res. 2023 Oct;43(10):4683-4690. doi: 10.21873/anticanres.16664.
BACKGROUND/AIM: Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have garnered attention as biomarkers for therapeutic response and prognosis in malignant neoplasms. Nonetheless, existing literature predominantly relies on surrogate markers of tumor cells or focuses on single-cell CTC, failing to adequately address the challenge of detecting cluster-forming CTCs, which bear considerable prognostic implications. This prospective study aims to validate the efficacy of a novel filtration membrane, namely Soft Micro Pore Filter (S-MPF), for rare cell recovery in detecting CTCs through the analysis of clinical samples.
Patients with confirmed lung cancer or highly suspected lung cancer based on specific criteria (solid tumor size >2.0 cm, serum carcinoembryonic level >7.5 ng/ml, maximum standard uptake value derived from fluorodeoxyglucose-position emission tomography >2.9) were included in the study. CTCs were extracted from preoperative peripheral arterial blood samples using S-MPF, and the validity of the filtration system was positively verified.
Out of the 25 enrolled patients, 23 had lung cancer. CTC positivity was observed in 17 cases (73.9%), whereas cluster CTC positivity was observed in 16 cases (69.6%), with a median count of two clusters. Single CTC positivity was observed in 11 cases (52.1%), with a median count of one cell.
The utilization of the newly developed S-MPF filtration membrane exhibited a high rate of CTC identification, demonstrating its suitability for clinical applications.
背景/目的：循环肿瘤细胞（CTCs）作为恶性肿瘤治疗反应和预后的生物标志物引起了关注。然而，现有的文献主要依赖于肿瘤细胞的替代标志物，或者专注于单细胞 CTC，未能充分解决检测簇形成的 CTC 的挑战，而簇形成的 CTC 具有重要的预后意义。本前瞻性研究旨在通过对临床样本的分析，验证一种新型过滤膜（即 Soft Micro Pore Filter，S-MPF）在稀有细胞回收中检测 CTC 的功效。
根据特定标准（实体瘤大小>2.0 cm，血清癌胚抗原水平>7.5 ng/ml，氟脱氧葡萄糖正电子发射断层扫描最大标准摄取值>2.9）确诊为肺癌或高度疑似肺癌的患者被纳入研究。使用 S-MPF 从术前外周动脉血样中提取 CTC，对过滤系统的有效性进行了积极验证。
在 25 名入组患者中，有 23 例患有肺癌。17 例（73.9%）观察到 CTC 阳性，16 例（69.6%）观察到簇状 CTC 阳性，中位数为 2 个簇。11 例（52.1%）观察到单个 CTC 阳性，中位数为 1 个细胞。
新开发的 S-MPF 过滤膜的应用显示出较高的 CTC 识别率，表明其适合临床应用。
