ArticleCancer biology & therapy2015
Circulating tumor cell levels are elevated in colorectal cancer patients with high tumor burden in the liver.
Article in Cancer biology & therapy, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Circulating Tumour DNA as Biomarker for Colorectal Liver Metastases: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Cells · 2023Pooled it
- Intravenous 5-fluoro-2'-deoxycytidine administered with tetrahydrouridine increases the proportion of p16-expressing circulating tumor cells in patients with advanced solid tumors.Cancer chemotherapy and pharmacology · 2020Trial
- Prognostic nomogram for synchronous metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a retrospective multicentre study.Radiation oncology (London, England) · 2025Article
- Baseline Tumor Size as Prognostic Index in Patients With Advanced Solid Tumors Receiving Experimental Targeted Agents.The oncologist · 2024Review
- Circulating tumor cells in colorectal cancer - a review of detection methods and clinical relevance.Contemporary oncology (Poznan, Poland) · 2023Review
- Which patients are prone to suffer liver metastasis? A review of risk factors of metachronous liver metastasis of colorectal cancer.European journal of medical research · 2022Review
- Reply to Comment on "In vivo flow cytometry reveals a circadian rhythm of circulating tumor cells".Light, science & applications · 2021Article
- Article
- Assessment of the Circulating Tumor Cells and Microsatellite Instability in Colorectal Cancer Patients: Prognostic and Diagnostic Value.OncoTargets and therapy · 2021Article
- Characteristic And Novel Therapeutic Strategies Of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma With Synchronous Metastasis.Cancer management and research · 2019Article
- Denosumab treatment is associated with the absence of circulating tumor cells in patients with breast cancer.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2018Article
- Intraoperative detection of circulating tumor cells in pulmonary venous blood during metastasectomy for colorectal lung metastases.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Serum CA19-9 as a marker of circulating tumor cells in first reflux blood of colorectal cancer patients.Oncotarget · 2017Article
- Cerebrospinal fluid circulating tumor cells: a novel tool to diagnose leptomeningeal metastases from epithelial tumors.Neuro-oncology · 2017Article
- Article
- Perioperative circulating tumor cell detection: Current perspectives.Cancer biology & therapy · 2016Review
- Circulating tumor cell isolation during resection of colorectal cancer lung and liver metastases: a prospective trial with different detection techniques.Cancer biology & therapy · 2015Article
- Detection of Circulating Gastrointestinal Cancer Cells in Conditionally Reprogrammed Cell Culture.In vivo (Athens, Greece)Article
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMetastatic spread is the most common cause of cancer-related death in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, with the liver being the mostly affected organ. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are a prognostic marker in stage IV CRC. We hypothesized that tumor burden in the liver correlates with CTC quantity.
methodsBlood (7.5 ml) was prospectively collected from 24 patients with novel stage IV CRC diagnosis. Baseline EpCAM+ CTCs were analyzed with the FDA-approved CellSearch® system. Clinicopathological data were collected, and hepatic tumor burden was determined by radiographic liver volumetry with contrast-enhanced CT scans. CRC primary tumors were immunohistochemically stained for EpCAM expression with BerEP4 monoclonal antibody. Statistical analyses were performed using 2-sample T-test, non-parametric Wilcoxon Rank-Sum test, and Fisher's exact test.
resultsCTCs were detected n 17 (71%) of 24 patients. The overall mean CTC number as determined by EpCAM-based CellSearch® detection was 6.3 (SEM 2.9). High baseline CTC numbers (≥3) correlated significantly with a high tumor/liver ratio (≥30%), and with high serum CEA levels, as determined by two-sample T-test on log-transformed data and by Fisher's Exact test on categorical data analysis (P < 0.05). The CRC primary tumors were consistently expressing EpCAM by immunostaining.
conclusionsHigh tumor burden in the liver and high baseline serum CEA levels are associated with high number of baseline CTCs in stage IV CRC patients. Future studies should further investigate the biological role and expression patterns of single CTCs in cancer patients to further improve personalized treatment strategies.
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