Abstract 1590: CD133-expressing circulating tumor cells might predict poor prognosis in patients with head and neck cancer

Abstract

Abstract PURPOSE: The prognostic value of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) number in patients with head and neck carcinoma (HNSCC) has been reported to be positive. The hypothesis of the additional markers on CTCs might predict clinical outcomes have been proposed. This study aimed to elucidate the prognostic/predictive value of CD133-expressing CTCs in HNSCC patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In a prospective single-center study, CTCs were enumerated in the peripheral blood of 24 subjects, including 14 patients with HNSCC and 10 healthy donors, at baseline and 2 weeks after starting first dose of chemotherapy. CTCs were measured using an immunomagnetic separation technique by combined negative and positive selection strategies. Immunofluorescence staining methods were applied for surface marker identification. Tumor response at 12 weeks after chemotherapy of the whole cohort was performed by computed tomograpgy or magnetic resonance imaging scans following RECIST criteria 1.1. RESULTS: In the first step of efficacy evaluation phase, an average recovery rate of 85.5% and a R2 value of 0.9932 were found when compared between spiked and recovered blood samples. A CTCs detection rate of 100.0% (14/14) was found by this protocol and the number could successfully differ HNSCC patients from healthy donors (P = 0.001). The mean and median (range) of baseline CTC number were 105.0 and 87.2 (34.5-358.1) cells/mL of blood. The higher baseline CTCs number was associated with higher tumor stage (AJCC 7th edition, P = 0.003). The higher absolute number (>5cells/mL of blood) of baseline CD133-expressing CTCs could predict poor survivals (Kaplan-Meier survival curves, P = 0.013). In all assessable patients, a high correlation rate of 92.9% was found between changes of CTCs (decline or elevation) and CT responses (progressive disease [PD] and partial response [PR]/Stable disease [SD]) with a P value of 0.005 (Fisher exact test). CONCLUSION: The number of CD133-expressing CTCs might be a useful prognostic for survivals and predictors for imaging response evaluation at 12 weeks in patients with HNSCC. Further investigation in large-scale prospective trials is warranted on the basis of the findings in this study. Citation Format: Jason Chia-Hsun Hsieh, Harber Hung-Bo Shiao, Bill Yuan-Jhih Chao, Ming-Jung Lin, John Wen-Cheng Chang, Hung-Ming Wang, Tyler Min-Hsien Wu. CD133-expressing circulating tumor cells might predict poor prognosis in patients with head and neck cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 1590. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-1590