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Clinical Significance of Circulating Tumor Cells in Blood from Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancers

  • Gastrointestinal Oncology
  • Published:
Annals of Surgical Oncology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) measured by the CellSearch system in metastatic breast cancer have been reported to correlate with shorter overall survival. The purpose of this study was to clarify the clinicopathologic characteristics of CTCs in gastrointestinal cancers.

Methods

Pre- and postoperative CTCs from 130 gastrointestinal cancer patients and 41 healthy volunteers were measured by this system. Correlation between CTC counts and clinicopathologic variables was examined.

Results

The number of CTCs in metastatic patients (n = 79) was larger than in nonmetastatic patients (n = 35) and in healthy donors (n = 41) (P < 0.001). CTC counts were larger in metastatic gastric cancer (n = 27) than in nonmetastatic gastric cancer (n = 14) (P = 0.016). Two or more CTCs was significantly correlated with advanced tumor stage in all gastrointestinal cancers (P < 0.001) and in gastric cancer (P = 0.032). Two or more CTCs had significant correlation with peritoneal dissemination of gastric or colorectal cancer (P = 0.007) and pleural dissemination of esophageal cancer (P = 0.033). The survival of patients with ≥2 CTCs was shorter than that of patients with <2 CTCs (P = 0.005). The change in CTCs tended to correlate with disease progression and chemotherapeutic effect.

Conclusion

This study suggests that measurement of CTCs in gastrointestinal cancer patients could be useful as a tool for judging tumor stage, predicting the presence of peritoneal or pleural dissemination and patients’ survival, and monitoring response to cancer therapy.

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Acknowledgements

This trial was supported in part by funding from Veridex.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 160-8582, Japan

    Kunihiko Hiraiwa MD, Hiroya Takeuchi MD, PhD, Hirotoshi Hasegawa MD, PhD, Yoshiro Saikawa MD, PhD, Koichi Suda MD, PhD, Takashi Ando MD, Koshi Kumagai MD, Tomoyuki Irino MD, Takahisa Yoshikawa MD, Sachiko Matsuda PhD & Yuko Kitagawa MD, PhD

  2. International University of Health and Welfare Mita Hospital, 1-4-3 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-8329, Japan

    Masaki Kitajima MD, PhD

Authors
  1. Kunihiko Hiraiwa MD
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  2. Hiroya Takeuchi MD, PhD
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  3. Hirotoshi Hasegawa MD, PhD
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  4. Yoshiro Saikawa MD, PhD
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  5. Koichi Suda MD, PhD
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  6. Takashi Ando MD
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  7. Koshi Kumagai MD
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  8. Tomoyuki Irino MD
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  9. Takahisa Yoshikawa MD
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  10. Sachiko Matsuda PhD
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  11. Masaki Kitajima MD, PhD
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  12. Yuko Kitagawa MD, PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hiroya Takeuchi MD, PhD.

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Hiraiwa, K., Takeuchi, H., Hasegawa, H. et al. Clinical Significance of Circulating Tumor Cells in Blood from Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancers. Ann Surg Oncol 15, 3092–3100 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-008-0122-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-008-0122-9

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