Detection and clinical significance of Cyttel circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood of patients with gastric cancer

Abstract

Objective To investigate the detection method of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in peripheral blood of patients with gastric cancer and evaluate the relationship between CTCs and clinicopathological characteristics. Methods Peripheral blood samples (4 ml) were collected from 41 cases of gastric cancer and CTCs were detected by Cyttel detection method. Fisher’s exact test and Pearson Chi-square test were adopted to analyze clinicopathological significance. Results CTCs were positive in 29 of the 41 patients with gastric cancer and the remaining 12 patients were negative for CTCs. The presence of CTCs was significantly correlated with gastric cancer tumor marker carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA, χ2=7.020, P=0.008), carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 (χ2=5.110, P=0.038), CA72-4 (χ2=7.862, P=0.013) and tumor emboli existed in blood vessels of tumor (χ2=5.448, P=0.034). However, CTCs were not significantly correlated with age (χ2=0.087, P=0.569), sex (χ2=1.903, P=0.247), tumor staging (χ2=0.029, P=0.595), differentiation (χ2=0.620, P=0.505) and lymph node metastasis (χ2=0.277, P=0.702). Conclusion Cyttel detection method of CTCs in peripheral blood of patients with gastric cancer is effective, and positive expression of CTCs in clinical monitoring helps predict metastasis of gastric cancer. Key words: Gastric cancer; Circulating tumor cell; Tumor marker; Cyttel strategy