Joo Dong Chan, Kim Gwang Ha, I Hoseok, Park Su Jin, Lee Moon Won, Lee Bong Eun
Department of Internal Medicine, Pusan National University School of Medicine, Busan 49241, Republic of Korea.
Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan 49241, Republic of Korea.
Cancers (Basel). 2024 Aug 22;16(16):2921. doi: 10.3390/cancers16162921.
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in cancer-draining veins have diagnostic and prognostic value. However, studies on esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) are limited. This study aimed to compare CTCs obtained from different sampling sites (peripheral vein vs. cancer-draining azygos vein) and to investigate their association with the clinicopathological characteristics of ESCC patients. Blood samples were collected preoperatively from both veins in 40 ESCC patients at Pusan National University Hospital from June 2020 to April 2022. CTCs were detected using a centrifugal microfluidic method with fluid-assisted separation. CTCs and TWIST (+) CTCs were detected more frequently in the azygos vein blood than in the peripheral vein blood; however, the difference was not statistically significant (85.0% [34/40] vs. 77.5% [31/40], = 0.250 and 82.5% [33/40] vs. 75.0% [30/40], = 0.586, respectively). CTC and TWIST (+) CTC counts were significantly higher in the azygos vein blood than in the peripheral vein blood (7 vs. 3, < 0.001, and 6 vs. 2, < 0.001, respectively). CTCs and TWIST (+) CTCs from peripheral and azygos veins showed no association with clinicopathological characteristics. Further large-scale studies are needed to clarify their role as predictive biomarkers for prognosis and chemotherapy responses in ESCC patients.
癌症引流静脉中的循环肿瘤细胞（CTCs）具有诊断和预后价值。然而，关于食管鳞状细胞癌（ESCC）的研究有限。本研究旨在比较从不同采样部位（外周静脉与癌引流奇静脉）获得的CTCs，并探讨它们与ESCC患者临床病理特征的相关性。2020年6月至2022年4月，在釜山国立大学医院对40例ESCC患者术前从两条静脉采集血样。使用具有流体辅助分离功能的离心微流控方法检测CTCs。在奇静脉血中检测到CTCs和TWIST（+）CTCs的频率高于外周静脉血；然而，差异无统计学意义（分别为85.0%[34/40]对77.5%[31/40]，P = 0.250；82.5%[33/40]对75.0%[30/40]，P = 0.586）。奇静脉血中的CTCs和TWIST（+）CTCs计数显著高于外周静脉血（分别为7对3，P < 0.001；6对2，P < 0.001）。外周静脉和奇静脉的CTCs及TWIST（+）CTCs与临床病理特征均无关联。需要进一步的大规模研究来阐明它们作为ESCC患者预后和化疗反应预测生物标志物的作用。
