Translational Medicine Study on Circulating Tumor Cell Detection in Patients with Metastatic Breast Cancer

• Main Authors: Bo SHEN, Ma-qing ZHENG, Xin-yu XU, Da WEI
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Third Party Medicine International Publishing Group Co. Limited 2015-06-01
• Series: Journal of International Translational Medicine
• Subjects: Breast cancer; Circulating tumor cell; Translational medicine; Prognosis and prediction; Progression-free survival
• Online Access: http://www.jitm.hk/EN/abstract/abstract144.shtml

Objective: To explore the prognostic and predictive effects of circulating tumor cell (CTC) detection in patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Methods: A total of 139 patients with MBC were selected to detect the peripheral blood CTC count by CellSearch system. The survival analysis was conducted according to CTC count, and multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed to analyze the factors influencing the progression-free survival (PFS), so as to diagnose the prognostic and predictive effects of CTC counts on MBC patients. Results: The rates of patients with CTC count ≥5 were 38.85% (54/139), 22.43% (24/107) and 17.27% (19/110) before treatment, 3-4 weeks after treatment and 6-8 weeks after treatment, respectively. Before treatment, the PFS of patients with CTC count ≥5 was evidently lower than those with CTC count <5, which difference was more significant along with time. HR coefficients of CTC to PFS were 1.939, 2.401 and 3.726 before treatment, 3-4 weeks after treatment and 6-8 weeks after treatment, respectively. And CTC was superior to estrogen receptor (ER) or progesterone receptor (PR) condition, human epidermal receptor 2 (HER2) condition and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) score in the prognostic and predictive values of MBC patients. Conclusion: CTC count can better reflect the therapeutic efficacy, and has higher clinical predictive value in the PFS of MBC patients.