ArticleJournal of Cancer2017
Circulating tumor cells and microemboli can differentiate malignant and benign pulmonary lesions.
Article in Journal of Cancer, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed.
- An innovative nuclear antigen-based approach for single-cell isolation of circulating tumor cells in adrenal cortical carcinoma.The journal of liquid biopsy · 2025Article
- Liquid biopsy - a narrative review with an update on current US governmental clinical trials targeting immunotherapy.Future science OA · 2025Review
- Emerging biomarkers for early cancer detection and diagnosis: challenges, innovations, and clinical perspectives.European journal of medical research · 2025Review
- Minimally invasive biomarkers for triaging lung nodules-challenges and future perspectives.Cancer metastasis reviews · 2025Review
- Recent progress in prompt molecular detection of liquid biopsy using Cas enzymes: innovative approaches for cancer diagnosis and analysis.Journal of translational medicine · 2024Review
- Precise diagnosis and prognosis assessment of malignant lung nodules: a narrative review.Journal of thoracic disease · 2024Review
- Characterisation of circulating tumor-associated and immune cells in patients with advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer.Clinical & translational immunology · 2024Article
- Article
- Value of peripheral blood circulating tumor cell detection in the diagnosis of thoracic diseases and the prediction of severity.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2023Article
- Utilization of Circulating Tumor Cells in the Management of Solid Tumors.Journal of personalized medicine · 2023Review
- Clinical Scores, Biomarkers and IT Tools in Lung Cancer Screening-Can an Integrated Approach Overcome Current Challenges?Cancers · 2023Review
- CTC-5: A novel digital pathology approach to characterise circulating tumour cell biodiversity.Heliyon · 2023Article
- Detection of circulating rare cells benefitted the diagnosis of malignant solitary pulmonary nodules.Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology · 2022Article
- Liquid biopsy: a step closer to transform diagnosis, prognosis and future of cancer treatments.Molecular cancer · 2022Review
- Article
- Liquid biopsies to distinguish malignant from benign pulmonary nodules.Thoracic cancer · 2021Review
- Circulating Tumor Cell Clusters Are Frequently Detected in Women with Early-Stage Breast Cancer.Cancers · 2021Article
- Anterior chest wall non-traumatic diseases: a road map for the radiologist.Acta bio-medica : Atenei Parmensis · 2020Review
- Diagnostic and interventional radiology: an update.Acta bio-medica : Atenei Parmensis · 2020Article
- Radiological diagnosis of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): a Practical Guide.Acta bio-medica : Atenei Parmensis · 2020Review
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Authors and funding
16 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The presence of circulating tumor cells (CTC) or microemboli (CTM) in the peripheral blood can theoretically anticipate malignancy of solid lesions in a variety of organs. We aimed to preliminarily assess this capability in patients with pulmonary lesions of suspected malignant nature. We used a cell-size filtration method (ScreenCell) and cytomorphometric criteria to detect CTC/CTM in a 3 mL sample of peripheral blood that was taken just before diagnostic percutaneous CT-guided fine needle aspiration (FNA) or core biopsy of the suspicious lung lesion. At least one CTC/CTM was found in 47 of 67 (70%) patients with final diagnoses of lung malignancy and in none of 8 patients with benign pulmonary nodules. In particular they were detected in 38 (69%) of 55 primary lung cancers and in 9 (75%) of 12 lung metastases from extra-pulmonary cancers. Sensitivity of CTC/CTM presence for malignancy was 70.1% (95%CI: 56.9-83.1%), specificity 100%, positive predictive value 100% and negative predictive value 28.6% (95%CI: 11.9-45.3%). Remarkably, the presence of CTC/CTM anticipated the diagnosis of primary lung cancer in 3 of 5 patients with non-diagnostic or inconclusive results of FNA or core biopsy, whereas CTC/CTM were not observed in 1 patient with sarcoidosis and 1 with amarthocondroma. These results suggest that presently, due to the low sensitivity, the search of CTC/CTM cannot replace CT guided percutaneous FNA or core biopsy in the diagnostic work-up of patients with suspicious malignant lung lesions. However, the high specificity may as yet indicate a role in cases with non-diagnostic or inconclusive FNA or core biopsy results that warrants to be further investigated.
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