Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Shin-Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital, Taipei 11101, Taiwan.
Division of Breast Surgery Clinic, En Chu Kong Hospital, No. 258, Zhongshan Rd., Sanxia Dist., New Taipei City 237, Taiwan.
Curr Oncol. 2024 Sep 21;31(9):5677-5693. doi: 10.3390/curroncol31090421.
Most breast cancer-related deaths are caused by distant metastases and drug resistance. It is important to find appropriate biomarkers to monitor the disease and to predict patient responses after treatment early and accurately. Many studies have found that clustered circulating tumor cells, with more correlations with metastatic cancer and poor survival of patients than individual ones, are promising biomarkers.
Eighty samples from eleven patients with breast cancer during follow-up visits were examined. By using a microfluidic chip and imaging system, the number of circulating tumor cells and microemboli (CTC/CTM) were counted to assess the distribution in stratified patients and the potential in predicting the disease condition of patients after treatments during follow-up visits. Specific components and subtypes of CTM were also preliminarily investigated.
Compared to CTC, CTM displayed a distinguishable distribution in stratified patients, having a better AUC value, in predicting the disease progression of breast cancer patients during follow-up visits in this study. Four subtypes were categorized from the identified CTM by considering different components. In combination with CEA and CA153, enumerated CTC and CTM from individual patients were applied to monitor the disease condition and patient response to the therapy during follow-up visits.
The CTM and its subtypes are promising biomarkers and valuable tools for studying cancer metastasis and longitudinally monitoring cancer patients during follow-up visits.
大多数乳腺癌相关死亡是由远处转移和耐药引起的。找到合适的生物标志物来早期、准确地监测疾病并预测患者治疗后的反应非常重要。许多研究发现，与转移性癌症和患者生存预后相关性更强的簇状循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）是很有前途的生物标志物。
本研究对 11 名随访乳腺癌患者的 80 份样本进行了检测。通过使用微流控芯片和成像系统，对循环肿瘤细胞和微栓子（CTC/CTM）的数量进行了计数，以评估分层患者中的分布情况，并在随访期间评估其在预测患者治疗后疾病状况中的潜在作用。还对 CTM 的特定成分和亚型进行了初步研究。
与 CTC 相比，CTM 在分层患者中的分布具有明显的差异，在预测本研究中随访期间乳腺癌患者的疾病进展方面具有更好的 AUC 值。通过考虑不同的成分，从鉴定出的 CTM 中分类出了 4 种亚型。结合 CEA 和 CA153，对单个患者的计数 CTC 和 CTM 进行了组合，用于监测疾病状况和患者对治疗的反应。
CTM 及其亚型是有前途的生物标志物，是研究癌症转移和对随访期间癌症患者进行纵向监测的有价值的工具。
