Detection of cancer stem cell like circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood of 45 patients with gastric cancer / 中华消化杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the expression and significance of CD44 gastric cancer stem cell biomarker positive circulating tumor cells (CTC ) in peripheral blood of patients with gastric cancer . Methods From March 2010 to December 2012 ,45 patients with gastric cancer and 20 healthy individuals were enrolled .Peripheral blood samples of all the subjects were collected .The expression of CTC and CD44 postive CTC were detected by density gradient centrifugation method and double immunofluorescent staining .Chi‐square test and t‐test were performed for statistical analysis .Results CTC in peripheral blood of healthy controls were not detected .Among 45 patients with gastric cancer ,CTC were detected in 27 patients and 19 of them were CD44‐positive .The difference in positive rate of CTC expression was statistically significant between two groups (χ2 =10 .986 , P<0 .05) .Among 27 CTC‐positive patients , 19 were proximal gastric cancer and 16 of them were CD44‐positive;16 patients had lymph node metastasis and 14 of them were CD44‐positive;13 patients had distant metastasis and 12 of them were CD44‐positive;14 patients had recurrence and 13 of them were CD44‐positive .The CD44 positive CTC was correlated with tumor location ,lymph node metastasis ,distant metastasis and recurrence (χ2=5 .891 ,5 .527 ,5 .787 and 7 .052 ,respectively ,all P<0 .05) .Furthermore ,in 13 patients with recurrence and CD44 positive CTC ,the recurrence time was (10 .54 ± 5 .55) months which was shorter than that of one patients with CD44 negative CTC (19 months) ,and the difference was statistically significant (t= -3 .654 , P=0 .004) .Conclusions CTC which express cancer stem cell marker may be associated with recurrence and metastasis of gastric cancer .It has more important clinical significance to detect this subtype of CTC .