Correlation between the number of circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood and clinicopathological features of patients with breast cancer / 肿瘤研究与临床

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the correlation between the number of circulating tumor cells (CTC) in peripheral blood and clinicopathological features of patients with breast cancer.Methods:The clinical data of 104 breast cancer patients at Guangzhou Panyu Central Hospital between January 2017 and May 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. The number of CTC in peripheral blood, the levels of serum tumor markers [alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen (CA)125, CA153] were detected. In blood samples, the number of CTC ≥ 2/ml was defined as CTC positive. Immunohistochemistry was used to analyze the protein expression of Ki-67 in tumor tissues. The association of CTC with clinicopathological features, serum tumor markers and Ki-67 protein expression was also analyzed.Results:The CTC positive rate was 80.77% (84/104). There were statistically significant differences in composition of whether there was vascular tumor thrombus (χ 2 = 0.860, P = 0.009), axillary lymph node metastasis (χ 2 = 12.382, P<0.01), N staging ( P = 0.002) and TNM staging (χ 2 = 7.698, P = 0.006) between patients with CTC positive and negative. However, there were no statistically significant differences in composition of age ( t = 0.634, P = 0.528), tumor quadrant (χ 2 = 6.523, P = 0.163), molecular subtyping (χ 2 = 4.164, P = 0.384), histological grade (χ 2 = 1.901, P = 0.387), T staging ( P = 0.099) and whether there was nerve invasion (χ 2 = 0.092, P = 0.761). The levels of serum CEA and CA125 in CTC positive patients were higher than those in CTC negative patients [median ( P25, P75) 2.50 ng/ml (2.21 ng/ml, 2.92 ng/ml) vs. 1.89 ng/ml (1.61 ng/ml, 2.35 ng/ml); 13.81 U/ml (11.79 U/ml, 16.28 U/ml) vs. 11.17 U/ml (8.91 U/ml, 12.80 U/ml); all P < 0.05], and CTC was positively correlated with serum CEA and CA153 levels ( r = 0.520, P<0.01; r = 0.497, P<0.01); CTC was not related to Ki-67 protein expression (χ 2 = 0.512, P = 0.474). Conclusion:The number of CTC in peripheral blood is closely related to clinical staging, lymph node or hematogenous metastasis, tumor markers CEA and CA153 levels of breast cancer. The increased number of CTC may cause tumor progression and metastasis.