Clinical Application of Circulating Tumor Cells in Evaluating the Effect of Chemotherapy in Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

Objective: To explore the value of circulating tumor cells in evaluating the effect of chemotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Methods: Sixty-two patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who received chemotherapy in the Affiliated Hospital of Hebei University from January 2018 to December 2021 were selected as the research subjects. The positive rate of CTCs after two weeks of chemotherapy and four weeks of chemotherapy as well as the evaluation of imaging efficacy were observed and analyzed. Results: Based on the clinical data of the patients, the positive rate of CTCs in male patients was 77.78%, that in female patients was 80.77%, that in patients ? 60 years old was 78.13%, that in patients < 60 years old was 76.67%, that in squamous cell carcinoma was 79.31%, that in adenocarcinoma was 78.79%, and that in highly differentiated, moderately differentiated, and poorly differentiated + undifferentiated CTCs was 66.67%, 84.21%, and 90.91%, respectively; there was no statistical difference in the general data. The positive rate of CTCs was 88.71% before chemotherapy and 66.13% after two weeks of chemotherapy, in which the difference was statistically significant; the positive rate of CTCs four weeks after chemotherapy was 59.68%, which was statistically significant compared with that before chemotherapy; however, there was no significant difference between two weeks after chemotherapy and four weeks after chemotherapy. After chemotherapy, 35 patients had CR+PR, 19 patients had SD, and 8 patients had PD. The proportions of CR+PR, SD, and PD in the imaging evaluation results were 56.45%, 30.65%, and 12.90%, respectively. After kappa consistency test, it was found that the consistency was good. Conclusion: CTCs can be used as one of the indicators to evaluate the effect of chemotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The results are consistent with those of imaging evaluation. The detection of CTCs can be widely used as one of the clinical indicators.