Clinical significance of pancreatic circulating tumor cells using combined negative enrichment and immunostaining-fluorescence in situ hybridization

摘要

Background Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) hold great potential in both clinical application and basic research for the managements of cancer. However, it remains to be an enormous challenge to obtain efficient detection of pancreatic CTCs. New detection platforms for the detection of pancreatic CTCs are urgently required. Methods In the present study, we applied a newly-developed platform integrated subtraction enrichment and immunostaining-fluorescence in situ hybridization (SE-iFISH) to analyze clinical significance of pancreatic CTCs. Immunostaining of CK, CD45, DAPI and FISH with the centromere of chromosome 8 (CEP8) were utilized to identify CTCs. Cells with features of CK+/CD45-/DAPI+/CEP8?=?2, CK+/CD45-/DAPI+/CEP8?>?2, CK-/CD45-/DAPI+/CEP8?>?2 were defined as pancreatic CTCs. The Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards model were used to analyze the relationship of CTC level and other clinicopathological factors with pancreatic cancer clinical outcomes. Results CTC count in pancreatic cancer was higher than healthy individuals (median, 3 vs 0 per 7.5?ml; P Conclusion Our current data showed that CTCs could be detected in pancreatic cancer patients in various stages, whether localized, locally advanced and metastatic. Besides, CTCs have shown the potential implication in predicting prognosis of pancreatic cancer.