Correlation of circulating tumor cells with cancer stage

BackgroundCirculating tumor cells (CTCs) are tumor cells that detach from the primary tumor, enter the blood stream, and can create new metastatic cases. Thus, the analysis of CTCs provides useful information for cancer diagnosis and its’ development. This study presents results of CTC enumeration at different stages of the disease in several types of cancer.MethodsBlood samples were collected from more than 14000 patients, representing more than 60 different types of cancer. CTCs were detected and isolated with Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS), evaluated with specific biomarkers for each cancer type, and then enumeration was performed with Flow Cytometry. Then, four datasets were created corresponding to four tumor stages for all cancer types. Finally, the averages of CTC numbers in the four datasets were estimated and modelled using linear regression.ResultsCTCs increase linearly with cancer stage with a correlation coefficient equal to 0.995. Particularly, the mean value of CTCs for all cancer types and for stage I was found 3.30±1.30, for stage II 4.40±1.67, for stage III 5.91±2.21 and for stage IV 6.97±2.72.ConclusionsIn this study, analyzing large datasets of all cancer types, we demonstrated that CTC counts increase linearly with cancer stages. These results are in line with previous conclusions stating that CTCs are correlated with tumor stage and that increased CTCs indicate higher likelihood of metastasis and cancer aggressiveness. Therefore, CTC numbers can indeed be used as useful biomarkers for disease progression, treatment monitoring and prognosis.Legal entity responsible for the studyThe authors.FundingHas not received any funding.DisclosureAll authors have declared no conflicts of interest.