Identification of Cancer-Associated Circulating Cells in Anal Cancer Patients.

Thomas J Carter,Jeyarooban Jeyaneethi,Juhi Kumar,Emmanouil Karteris,Marcia Hall,Rob Glynne-Jones

doi:10.3390/cancers12082229

Thomas J Carter, Jeyarooban Jeyaneethi + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers12082229

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Journal: Cancers	Publication Date: Aug 10, 2020
Citations: 6	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Brunel University London, Mount Vernon Cancer Centre

Abstract

Whilst anal cancer accounts for less than 1% of all new cancer cases, incidence rates have increased by up to 70% in the last 30 years with the majority of cases driven by human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. Standard treatment for localised anal cancer is chemoradiotherapy (CRT). Localised progression is the predominant pattern of relapse but well under 50% of cases are salvaged by surgery, predominantly because confirming recurrence within post-radiation change is very challenging. Identifying cancer-associated circulating cells (CCs) in peripheral blood could offer a corroborative method of monitoring treatment efficacy and identifying relapse early. To study this, nucleated cells were isolated from the blood of patients with anal cancer prior to, during, and after CRT and processed through the Amnis® ImageStream®X Mk II Imaging Flow Cytometer, without prior enrichment, using Pan-cytokeratin (PCK), CD45 antibodies and making use of the DNA dye DRAQ5. Analysis was undertaken using IDEAS software to identify those cells that were PCK-positive and DRAQ5-positive as well as CD45-negative; these were designated as CCs. CCs were identified in 7 of 8 patients; range 60–876 cells per mL of blood. This first report of the successful identification of CCs in anal cancer patients raises the possibility that liquid biopsies will find a future role as a prognostic/diagnostic tool in this patient group.

Highlights

Anal cancer is a rare cancer, accounting for less than 1% of all cancer diagnoses [1] and around2% of all cancers of the gastrointestinal tract [2]
Blood samples were collected from eight patients diagnosed with localised Squamous cell carcinoma of the anus (SCCA)
We have previously demonstrated the presence of numerous non-hematopoietic circulating cells (CCs) in the blood stream of patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer and lung cancer, by examining the entire liquid biopsy and avoiding the use of enrichment methods typically employed in CellSearch and ISET

Summary

Introduction

Anal cancer is a rare cancer, accounting for less than 1% of all cancer diagnoses [1] and around2% of all cancers of the gastrointestinal tract [2]. Anal cancer is a rare cancer, accounting for less than 1% of all cancer diagnoses [1] and around. Incidence rates of SCCA have increased by up to 70% over the last 30 years, with the majority of cases occurring as a result of human papilloma virus (HPV) infection [5]. Most cases of SCCA are diagnosed at an early stage (T1/T2); metastatic disease accounts for

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