Mastronicola Romina, Kayser Elise, Le Roux Pauline, Barrat Agathe, Aubertin Alexandre, Casse Aurore, Nominé Léa, Villard Hélèna, Cortese Sophie, Beulque Emilie, Merlin Jean-Louis, Dolivet Gilles
Institut de Cancérologie de Lorraine ICL, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France.
CRAN, CNRS, UMR, Université de Lorraine, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France.
PLoS One. 2025 Apr 1;20(4):e0320485. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0320485. eCollection 2025.
Distant metastasis in head and neck cancer are one of the first factors contributing to death. Currently, it is difficult to detect them early with our conventional techniques such as Positron Emission Tomography scanner (PET-scanner) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Therefore, it is important to find new markers that can help us in the care of the patient. This study aimed at comparing two methods (Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction and CellSearch) to detect circulating tumor cells (CTC) as a prognosticator. Results were statistically significant for markers EphB4 (p-value = 0.0003), CEA (p-value = 0.0006), CK 18 (p-value = 0.0011) and Ep-CAM (p-value = 0.0299) and demonstrate that our detection techniques could be used by optimizing our protocol. In addition, results of the rate of CTCs helped identify this as an indicator of a prognosis for the patient. Indeed, the study revealed that most patients in remission exhibited a decrease in post-operative CTCs, whereas patients experiencing relapses demonstrated an increase in CTCs, which was correlated with a poor prognosis.
头颈部癌的远处转移是导致死亡的首要因素之一。目前，使用正电子发射断层扫描仪（PET扫描仪）和磁共振成像（MRI）等传统技术很难早期检测到远处转移。因此，寻找能够帮助我们治疗患者的新标志物非常重要。本研究旨在比较两种检测循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）作为预后指标的方法（逆转录-聚合酶链反应和CellSearch）。EphB4（p值=0.0003）、癌胚抗原（CEA，p值=0.0006）、细胞角蛋白18（CK 18，p值=0.0011）和上皮细胞黏附分子（Ep-CAM，p值=0.0299）等标志物的结果具有统计学意义，表明通过优化方案我们的检测技术可以得到应用。此外，CTC的比率结果有助于将其确定为患者预后的一个指标。确实，研究显示大多数缓解期患者术后CTC数量减少，而复发患者的CTC数量增加，这与预后不良相关。
