title: Circulating tumor cells in early breast cancer: A connection with vascular invasion.
abstract: Although circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have been studied in early breast cancer (EBC), their value in this setting is still not fully understood. We isolated and studied CTCs in the peripheral blood (PB) of 48 EBC patients pre-surgery and one and 6 months post-surgery using an approach involving EpCAM-independent enrichment and a dielectrophoresis-based device. Method feasibility and the correlation between CTCs and primary tumor features were evaluated. CTCs were found in 27.1% of pre-surgery patients, 20.9% of patients one-month post-surgery, and about 33% of patients 6-months post-surgery. CTCs were recovered singly for further molecular characterization. Pre-surgery CTC-positive patients more frequently had negative prognostic features, i.e. high proliferation, large tumor dimension, lymph node positivity and negative receptor status than the other subgroup. In particular, vascular invasion showed a statistically significant correlation with CTC-positivity. Our procedure proved feasible and capable of recovering CTCs from EBC patients. Furthermore, our results suggest that CTCs may be linked to vascular invasion and to other known negative prognostic factors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST) IRCCS, Meldola, FC, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Maltoni
authors.affiliation: Biosciences Laboratory, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST) IRCCS, Meldola, FC, Italy.
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fici
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST) IRCCS, Meldola, FC, Italy.
authors.forename: Dino
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Amadori
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC) and Pathology Unit, Felice Addarii Institute, PhD program-Specialistic Medical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, BO, Italy.
authors.forename: Giulia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gallerani
authors.affiliation: University of Bologna, Bologna, BO, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cocchi
authors.affiliation: University of Ferrara, Ferrara, FE, Italy.
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zoli
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST) IRCCS, Meldola, FC, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rocca
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST) IRCCS, Meldola, FC, Italy.
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cecconetto
authors.affiliation: Breast Surgery Unit, Morgagni-Pierantoni Hospital, Forlì, FC, Italy.
authors.forename: Secondo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Folli
authors.affiliation: Unit of Biostatistics and Clinical Trials, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST) IRCCS, Meldola, FC, Italy.
authors.forename: Emanuela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Scarpi
authors.affiliation: Unit of Biostatistics and Clinical Trials, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST) IRCCS, Meldola, FC, Italy.
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Serra
authors.affiliation: Biosciences Laboratory, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST) IRCCS, Meldola, FC, Italy. Electronic address: francesco.fabbri@irst.emr.it.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fabbri
mesh_terms: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000473:pathology*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000378:metabolism; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D000071858:Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D061986:MCF-7 Cells; D008408:Mastectomy; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D047368:Tumor Burden
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; C499379:EPCAM protein, human; D000071858:Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule
keywords: CTCs; DEPArray™; Early breast cancer; Vascular invasion