ArticleBMC cancer2015
Circulating tumor cells in hepatocellular carcinoma: a pilot study of detection, enumeration, and next-generation sequencing in cases and controls.
Article in BMC cancer, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 78 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
78 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 123 citations in OpenAlex.
- Utility of Liquid Biopsy Analysis in Detection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Determination of Prognosis, and Disease Monitoring: A Systematic Review.Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology : the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association · 2020Pooled it
- Pooled it
- The diagnostic value of assays for circulating tumor cells in hepatocellular carcinoma: A meta-analysis.Medicine · 2017Pooled it
- Clinical significance of glypican-3-positive circulating tumor cells of hepatocellular carcinoma patients: A prospective study.PloS one · 2019Trial
- Micro/Nanostructured Materials and Microfluidic Diagnostic Platforms Enable Multimodal Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells.Exploration (Beijing, China) · 2026Review
- Circulating tumor DNA as a predictive biomarker for prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of the National Cancer Center · 2026Article
- Clinical Significance of Circulating Tumor Cells in the Portal Vein of Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma Undergoing Anatomical Liver Resection.Annals of surgical oncology · 2025Article
- Role of Liquid Biopsy for Early Detection, Prognosis, and Therapeutic Monitoring of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Liquid Biopsy in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: ctDNA as a Potential Biomarker for Diagnosis and Prognosis.Current oncology reports · 2025Review
- Review
- Biological roles and clinical applications of EpCAM in HCC.Discover oncology · 2025Review
- Liquid biopsy in hepatocellular carcinoma: Challenges, advances, and clinical implications.Clinical and molecular hepatology · 2025Review
- Exploring Circulating Tumor Cells: Detection Methods and Biomarkers for Clinical Evaluation in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.Journal of clinical and translational hepatology · 2024Review
- Ezrin Polarization as a Diagnostic Marker for Circulating Tumor Cells in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.Cells · 2024Article
- Novel biomarkers for monitoring and management of hepatocellular carcinoma.Cancer cell international · 2024Review
- Prognostic prediction signature and molecular subtype for liver cancer: A CTC/CTM‑related gene prediction model and independent external validation.Oncology letters · 2024Article
- Biomarkers for diagnosis and therapeutic options in hepatocellular carcinoma.Molecular cancer · 2024Review
- Prognostic value of circulating tumor cells combined with neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.World journal of gastrointestinal oncology · 2024Article
- Prognostic model for predicting recurrence in hepatocellular carcinoma patients with high systemic immune-inflammation index based on machine learning in a multicenter study.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- Liquid Liver Biopsy for Disease Diagnosis and Prognosis.Journal of clinical and translational hepatology · 2023Review
18 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundCirculating biomarkers are urgently needed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The aims of this study were to determine the feasibility of detecting and isolating circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in HCC patients using enrichment for epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) expression, to examine their prognostic value, and to explore CTC-based DNA sequencing in metastatic HCC patients compared to a control cohort with non-malignant liver diseases (NMLD).
methodsWhole blood was obtained from patients with metastatic HCC or NMLD. CTCs were enumerated by CellSearch then purified by immunomagnetic EpCAM enrichment and fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Targeted ion semiconductor sequencing was performed on whole genome-amplified DNA from CTCs, tumor specimens, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) when available.
resultsTwenty HCC and 10 NMLD patients enrolled. CTCs ≥ 2/7.5 mL were detected in 7/20 (35%, 95% confidence interval: 12%, 60%) HCC and 0/9 eligible NMLD (p = 0.04). CTCs ≥ 1/7.5 mL was associated with alpha-fetoprotein ≥ 400 ng/mL (p = 0.008) and vascular invasion (p = 0.009). Sequencing of CTC DNA identified characteristic HCC mutations. The proportion with ≥ 100x coverage depth was lower in CTCs (43%) than tumor or PBMC (87%) (p < 0.025). Low frequency variants were higher in CTCs (p < 0.001).
conclusionsCTCs are detectable by EpCAM enrichment in metastatic HCC, without confounding false positive background from NMLD. CTC detection was associated with poor prognostic factors. Sequencing of CTC DNA identified known HCC mutations but more low-frequency variants and lower coverage depth than FFPE or PBMC.
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