Circulating tumor cells undergoing EMT are poorly correlated with clinical stages or predictive of recurrence in hepatocellular carcinoma

Yunyang Chen,Wei Li,Jiexiong Yu,Shaoming Li,Wangrong Tang,Yong Ye,Lin Ye,Xianguang Zhang,Rongbing Yang

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-43572-1

Yunyang Chen, Wei Li + Show 7 more

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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-43572-1

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Journal: Scientific Reports	Publication Date: May 8, 2019
Citations: 43	License type: open-access

Affiliation: Jiangmen Central Hospital

Abstract

Experimental and clinical studies have highlighted that circulating tumor cell (CTC) with phenotypic hallmarks of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a critical role in the metastatic and recurrence of solid malignancy. Here we retrospectively evaluated the presence of CTC and its EMT phenotypes in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients and investigated their clinical relevance. We optimized the CanpatrolTM CTC analysis system to enumerate CTC and classify EMT phenotypes in 113 HCC patients before curative treatment and 143 HCC patients after curative treatment. The relationships between CTC and clinical characteristics were statistically analyzed. None of total CTC or its EMT phenotypes in HCC patients was correlated with clinical characteristics, such as age, sex, HBsAg, Child-Pugh score, liver cirrhosis, AFP, number of tumors, tumor size, vascular invasion and BCLC stage. Neither the level of total CTC nor its EMT phenotypes in HCC patients before or after curative treatment were predictive of recurrence. Additionally, dynamic changes of CTC and its EMT phenotypes were not relevant to HCC recurrence after curative treatment in our study. Wefound CTC count and EMT classification were not correlated with clinical stages or predictive of HCC recurrence, but further large, multicenter studies are needed to confirm these results.

Highlights

Its epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) phenotypes in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients was correlated with clinical characteristics, such as age, sex, HBsAg, Child-Pugh score, liver cirrhosis, alpha fetoprotein (AFP), number of tumors, tumor size, vascular invasion and BCLC
Experimental and clinical studies have highlighted the hypothesis that circulating tumor cell (CTC) play a critical role in the metastatic and recurrence of HCC4,17–20
CanpatrolTM CTC analysis system was developed to detect CTC and classify EMT phenotypes via multiple mRNA in situ hybridization assay, by which revealing that CTC count and EMT classification are correlated with clinical stages and metastasis of HCC13–16

Summary

Introduction

We retrospectively evaluated the presence of CTC and its EMT phenotypes in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients and investigated their clinical relevance. None of total CTC or its EMT phenotypes in HCC patients was correlated with clinical characteristics, such as age, sex, HBsAg, Child-Pugh score, liver cirrhosis, AFP, number of tumors, tumor size, vascular invasion and BCLC stage. Neither the level of total CTC nor its EMT phenotypes in HCC patients before or after curative treatment were predictive of recurrence. Dynamic changes of CTC and its EMT phenotypes were not relevant to HCC recurrence after curative treatment in our study. Wefound CTC count and EMT classification were not correlated with clinical stages or predictive of HCC recurrence, but further large, multicenter studies are needed to confirm these results. Circulating tumor cell (CTC) has been defined as cancer cell released into the blood circulation from solid tumor origin, which represent viable metastatic precursor cell capable of initiating a clonal metastatic lesion

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