Abstract
PurposeTo evaluate the prognostic value of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).MethodsCox’s proportional hazards regression models were used to identify whether CTCs was a poor prognostic factor for NPC. Chi-square tests were used to analyze and compare the distribution characteristics of CTCs in NPC. ROC curve was used to estimate the cut-off point of CTCs. Kaplan-Meier survival analyses were used to observe the prognostic value of CTCs alone and in combined with Epstein-Barr Virus DNA (EBV-DNA).ResultsCTCs was confirmed to be an independent risk factor for poor prognosis of NPC by Cox’s regression models that enrolled 370 NPC cases and took age, gender, EBV-DNA and CTCs as variables. The proportion of CTCs in stage IV NPC was statistically different from that in stage III; the cut-off point of CTCs between stage IV (288 cases) and stage III (70 cases) NPC estimated by ROC curve was 0.5. The prognosis of advanced NPC patients became worse with the increase of CTCs count. The combined detection of CTCs and EBV-DNA could better predict the prognosis of NPC compared with the single detection of EBV-DNA.
Highlights
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) count using the CellSearch system (Janssen Diagnostics, Raritan, NJ, USA) has been proved to have good prognostic value for metastatic breast cancer (Bidard et al 2014)
Due to expensive cost of CTCs examination and regional characteristics of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), the application of CTCs in NPC is still in exploratory stage (Si et al 2016; Zhang et al 2018; He et al 2017); the detection methods of CTCs were different in different studies
This study focused on whether CTCs has prognostic value for NPC and how to use CTCs to predict the prognosis of NPC patients
Summary
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) count using the CellSearch system (Janssen Diagnostics, Raritan, NJ, USA) has been proved to have good prognostic value for metastatic breast cancer (Bidard et al 2014). Due to expensive cost of CTCs examination and regional characteristics of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), the application of CTCs in NPC is still in exploratory stage (Si et al 2016; Zhang et al 2018; He et al 2017); the detection methods of CTCs were different in different studies. The reasons for different conclusions may be that the detection methods of CTCs or the research approaches adopted by different studies were different, or Instrument and reagent Instrument: CellTracks® AutoPrep® system and CellTracks® Analyzer II. Kit name: CellSearch Circulating Tumor Cell Kit (Epithelial). After the CTCs has been captured and enriched by the immune
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