Cell-surface vimentin positive circulating tumor cells as a diagnostic and prognostic indicator in pediatric sarcoma patients.

Abstract

e15022 Background: Despite advances in care, the 5 year overall survival for patients with relapsed and or metastatic sarcoma remains as low as < 35%. Currently, there are no biomarkers available to assess disease status in patients with sarcomas and as such, disease surveillance remains only reliant on serial imaging which increases the risk of secondary malignancies and heightens patient anxiety. Methods: Here, we enumerated the cell surface vimentin (CSV+) CTCs in the blood of 92 sarcoma pediatric and adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients. Results: We discovered the CSV+CTC could serve as a possible biomarker of disease with sensitivity of 85.3% and specificity of 75%. Significantly, patients who were deemed to be CSV+ CTC positive were found to have a worse overall survival compared to those who were CSV+ CTC negative (773 days vs 2622 days). Addition of readily available genetic analyses improved the sensitivity in both diagnostic and prognostic tests. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that CSV+ CTCs have both diagnostic and prognostic value and can possibly serve as a measure of disease burden.