title: Cytokeratin 20 improves the detection of circulating tumor cells in patients with colorectal cancer.
abstract: Cytokeratin 20 (CK20) is a well-established marker for colon epithelium. Herein, we suggest that CK20 is a biomarker for detecting circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Blood specimens (7.5 mL) were collected during surgery after liver mobilization from 25 patients with colorectal cancer. The FDA approved CellSearch™ system and two panels of antibodies against cytokeratins, cytokeratin 8, 18 and 19 (CK8/18/19) and CK8/18/19/20, were used for the detection of CTCs. All the patients' samples were processed using the anti-CK8/18/19 panel. The number of detected CTCs was low, 52% of the patients lacked CTCs and 40% had ≤ 2 CTCs/7.5 mL blood. Nine of the patients' blood samples were processed with both antibody panels. The detection rate of CTCs was significantly higher using the anti-CK8/18/19/20 panel compared with the anti-CK8/18/19 panel, p-value 0.0078. Our data show that inclusion of CK20 as a biomarker efficiently improves the detection of CTCs in colorectal cancer patients. The finding in our study is of clinical importance since a new prognostic biomarker would provide an important tool in individual clinical decision-making for colorectal cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Clinical Sciences, Lund University, SE-221 85 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Welinder
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Clinical Sciences, Lund University, SE-221 85 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jansson
authors.affiliation: Hepato-Biliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Skane University Hospital (SUS), Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Gert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lindell
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Urology, Office for Health Care Sund, Helsingborg Hospital, SE-251 87 Helsingborg, Sweden. Electronic address: jorgen.wenner@skane.se.
authors.forename: Jörgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wenner
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053554:Keratin-20 / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D053554:Keratin-20
keywords: Biomarker; Circulating tumor cell; Colorectal cancer; Cytokeratin 20