ArticlePloS one2014
Mesenchymal phenotype of CTC-enriched blood fraction and lymph node metastasis formation potential.
Article in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploring platelet-covered and naked circulating tumor cells - a single-cell transcriptomic perspective.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Article
- New insights into the correlations between circulating tumor cells and target organ metastasis.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2023Review
- Significance of circulating tumor cells detection in tumor diagnosis and monitoring.BMC cancer · 2023Article
- Alpha-smooth muscle actin-positive cancer-associated fibroblasts secreting osteopontin promote growth of luminal breast cancer.Cellular & molecular biology letters · 2022Article
- Breast cancer circulating tumor cells with mesenchymal features-an unreachable target?Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2022Review
- Ex Vivo Expanded Circulating Tumor Cells for Clinical Anti-Cancer Drug Prediction in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer.Cancers · 2021Article
- Reduced expression of innate immunity-related genes in lymph node metastases of luminal breast cancer patients.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Mesenchymal Characteristics and Predictive Biomarkers on Circulating Tumor Cells for Therapeutic Strategy.Cancers · 2020Review
- EMT-Associated Heterogeneity in Circulating Tumor Cells: Sticky Friends on the Road to Metastasis.Cancers · 2020Review
- CXCR4 and JUNB double-positive disseminated tumor cells are detected frequently in breast cancer patients at primary diagnosis.Therapeutic advances in medical oncology · 2020Article
- New Insights Into the Role of Phenotypic Plasticity and EMT in Driving Cancer Progression.Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2020Review
- Article
- Controversies around epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity in cancer metastasis.Nature reviews. Cancer · 2019Review
- A Novel Panel of 80 RNA Biomarkers with Differential Expression in Multiple Human Solid Tumors against Healthy Blood Samples.International journal of molecular sciences · 2019Article
- The prognostic value of JUNB-positive CTCs in metastatic breast cancer: from bioinformatics to phenotypic characterization.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2019Article
- The Role of Breast Cancer Stem Cells as a Prognostic Marker and a Target to Improve the Efficacy of Breast Cancer Therapy.Cancers · 2019Review
- Prognostic and clinicopathological significance of circulating tumor cells in osteosarcoma.Journal of bone oncology · 2019Article
- Profiling of Invasive Breast Carcinoma Circulating Tumour Cells-Are We Ready for the 'Liquid' Revolution?Cancers · 2019Review
- Spectrum of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Phenotypes in Circulating Tumour Cells from Early Breast Cancer Patients.Cancers · 2019Article
- Aggressive Phenotype of Cells Disseminated via Hematogenous and Lymphatic Route in Breast Cancer Patients.Translational oncology · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionCirculating tumor cells (CTCs) that present mesenchymal phenotypes can escape standard methods of isolation, thus limiting possibilities for their characterization. Whereas mesenchymal CTCs are considered to be more malignant than epithelial CTCs, factors responsible for this aggressiveness have not been thoroughly defined. This study analyzed the molecular profile related to metastasis formation potential of CTC-enriched blood fractions obtained by marker unbiased isolation from breast cancer patients without (N-) and with lymph nodes metastases (N+). MATERIALS AND
methodsBlood samples drawn from 117 patients with early-stage breast cancer were enriched for CTCs using density gradient centrifugation and negative selection with anti-CD45 covered magnetic particles. In the resulting CTC-enriched blood fractions, expression of CK19, MGB1, VIM, TWIST1, SNAIL, SLUG, HER2, CXCR4 and uPAR was analyzed with qPCR. Results were correlated with patients' clinicopathological data.
resultsCTCs (defined as expression of either CK19, MGB1 or HER2) were detected in 41% (20/49) of N- and 69% (34/49) of N+ patients (P = 0.004). CTC-enriched blood fractions of N+ patients were more frequently VIM (P = 0.02), SNAIL (P = 0.059) and uPAR-positive (P = 0.03). Positive VIM, CXCR4 and uPAR status correlated with >3 lymph nodes involved (P = 0.003, P = 0.01 and P = 0.045, respectively). In the multivariate logistic regression MGB1 and VIM-positivity were independently related to lymph node involvement with corresponding overall risk of 3.2 and 4.2. Moreover, mesenchymal CTC-enriched blood fractions (CK19-/VIM+ and MGB1+ or HER2+) had 4.88 and 7.85-times elevated expression of CXCR4 and uPAR, respectively, compared with epithelial CTC-enriched blood fractions (CK19+/VIM- and MGB1+ or HER2+).
conclusionsTumors of N+ patients have superior CTC-seeding and metastatic potential compared with N- patients. These differences can be attributed to VIM, uPAR and CXCR4 expression, which endow tumor cells with particularly malignant phenotypes.
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