title: Clinical Significance of Folate Receptor-positive Circulating Tumor Cells Detected by Ligand-targeted Polymerase Chain Reaction in Lung Cancer.
abstract: Background: As the heterogeneity of CTCs is becoming increasingly better understood, it is clear that identifying particular subtypes of CTCs would be more relevant.Methods: We detected folate receptor (FR)-positive circulating tumor cells (FR+-CTCs) by a novel ligand-targeted polymerase chain reaction (LT-PCR) detection technique.Results: In the none-dynamic study, FR+-CTC levels of patients with lung cancer were significantly higher than controls (patients with benign lung diseases and healthy controls). With a threshold of 8.7 CTC units, FR+-CTC showed a sensitivity of 77.7% and specificity of 89.5% in the diagnosis of lung cancer. When compared with established clinical biomarkers including carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cytokeratin 19 fragment (CYFRA21-1), and neuron-specific enolase (NSE), FR+-CTC showed the highest diagnostic efficiency. Notably, the combination of FR+-CTC, CEA, NSE, and CYFRA21-1 could significantly improve the diagnostic efficacy in differentiating patients with lung cancer from benign lung disease. In our dynamic surveillance study, the CTC levels of 62 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients decreased significantly after tumor resection.Conclusion: We established a LT-PCR-based FR+-CTC detection platform for patients with lung cancer that exhibits high sensitivity and specificity. This platform would be clinical useful in lung cancer diagnosis and treatment response assessment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai JiaoTong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai JiaoTong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Chuanyong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai JiaoTong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Lihua
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai JiaoTong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Wenjun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai JiaoTong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Qiaomei
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai JiaoTong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Mingna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: GenoSaber Biotech, 908 ziping Road, Bldg 26, Pudong, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Guohua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai JiaoTong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Hang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai JiaoTong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Jiatao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lou
keywords: circulating tumor cells; folate receptor; ligand-targeted polymerase chain reaction; lung cancer.