[Clinical significance of enrichment and detection of circulating tumor cells in NSCLC patients with immunomagnetic beads].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the feasibility and clinical significance of detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in peripheral blood of NSCLC patients by lung cancer cell immunomagnetic enrichment and detection kit.


METHODS
Four groups of patients (Group A: 18 cases with stage I lung cancer; Group B: 33 cases with stage II - IV lung cancer; Group C: 20 cases with benign pulmonary diseases; Group D: 20 healthy volunteers) were enrolled for detection of CTCs using the lung cancer cell enrichment and detection kit developed by ourselves, and compared with the results obtained using simple ICC method and the detection of CK19 mRNA and LUNX mRNA using nested PCR as control.


RESULTS
By using lung cancer cell enrichment and detection kit, it was revealed that the detection rates of CK positive cells were 33.3%, 60.6%, 0% and 0% in Group A, B, C and D, respectively. By using nested RT-PCR, the rates of positive expression of CK19 mRNA were 38.9%, 63.6%, 20.0% and 0% in Group A, B, C and D, respectively, and those of LUNX mRNA were 44.4%, 69.7%, 10.0% and 0%, respectively, while the detection rate of CTCs was negative in all groups using simple ICC. There was a significant difference between the results obtained by lung cancer cell enrichment and detection kit and simple ICC method (P < 0.05), while no significant difference was found between the results obtained by lung cancer cell enrichment and detection kit and nested RT-PCR (P > 0.05). There was a significant difference in the detection rates of CK positive cells between group A and groups B, C, D (P < 0.05). The micrometastasis in peripheral blood was closely related with pathological types, cell differentiation and TNM staging (P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The lung cancer cell enrichment and detection kit developed by ourselves is a sensitive and reliable method to detect CTCs in patients with NSCLC. It may be helpful in diagnosis of NSCLC micrometastasis and circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood, re-determination of clinical stage and provide important information for cancer-therapy personalization.
Huang
Tong-Hai
TH
Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shenzhen People's Hospital, The 2nd Clinical Medical College of Jinan University, Shenzhen 518020, China.
Wang
Zheng
Z
Li
Qing
Q
Li
Fu-Rong
FR
Qi
Hui
H
Zhou
Han-Xin
HX
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D018189:Immunomagnetic Separation / Q000379:methods*; D053539:Keratin-19 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000473:pathology*; D010750:Phosphoproteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
C485599:BPIFA1 protein, human; D006023:Glycoproteins; D053539:Keratin-19; D010750:Phosphoproteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger