Folate receptor-positive circulating tumor cells predict survival and recurrence patterns in patients undergoing resection for pancreatic cancer

作者：Hao Cheng, Jun Yang, Xu Fu, Liang Mao, Xuehui Chu, Chenglin Lu, Gang Li, Yudong Qiu, Wei He · 发表于：Frontiers in Oncology · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.3389/fonc.2022.1012609 · 被引用次数：10 · 研究领域：Cancer Cells and Metastasis、Mesenchymal stem cell research、MicroRNA in disease regulation

Objective To evaluate the prognostic impact of folate receptor (FR)-positive circulating tumor cells (FR + CTCs) for patients with pancreatic cancer (PC). Background Risk stratification before surgery for PC patients remains challenging as there are no reliable prognostic markers currently. FR + CTCs, detected by ligand-targeted polymerase chain reaction (LT-PCR), have shown excellent diagnostic value for PC in our previous study and prognostic value in a variety of cancer types. Methods Peripheral blood samples from 44 consecutive patients diagnosed with PC were analyzed for FR + CTCs. 25 patients underwent tumor resection and were assigned to the surgical group. 19 patients failed to undergo radical resection because of local advance or distant metastasis and were assigned to the non-surgical group. The impact of CTCs on relapse and survival were explored. Results For the prognostic stratification, the optimal cut-off value of CTCs analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 14.49 folate units (FU)/3 ml. High CTC levels (> 14.49 FU/3 ml) were detected in 52.0% (13/25) of the patients in the surgical group and 63.2% (12/19) in the non-surgical group. In the surgical group, median disease-free survival (DFS) for patients with high CTC levels versus low CTC levels (< 14.49 FU/3 ml) was 8.0 versus 26.0 months ( P = 0.008). In multivariable analysis, CTCs were an independent risk factor for DFS (HR: 4.589, P = 0.012). Concerning the recurrence pat...