The cytological examination of cancer cells in the peripheral blood of patients with gastric cancer / 中华消化杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective The infiltration and micrometastasis of cancer cells via lymph vessel and blood is the important factors which influence the prognosis of patients with cancer. The present study was to establish the method of cytological examination of circulating gastric cancer cell in the peripheral blood and to explore its clinical significance. Methods The monocytes in blood samples, taken from 24 patients with advanced gastric cancer, were seperated by using Ficoll density gradient centrifugation and magnetic cell sorting system in which the magnetic microbeads were wrapped with cytokeratin 7 and 8. The samples were smeared and observed with HE stain. The expression of CD 34 , CD 45 , CEA and human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) of the cells were also examined with immunocytochemical and immunofluorescence staining methods. Results Gastric cancer cells were found in 10 out of 24 cases, and the positivity rate was 41.7%, which was significantly different from pathological differentiation of primary focus. Conclusion This method can be used to detect cancer cells from peripheral blood of patients with gastric cancer and therapeutic protocol and prediction of prognosis can be made based on it.