Cancer Stem Cell-Like Circulating Tumor Cells Are Prognostic in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Despite recent advances in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), less than 10% of patients survive the first five years when the disease has already spread at primary diagnosis. Methods: Blood samples were taken from 118 NSCLC patients at primary diagnosis or at progression of the dis...
Guardado en:
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | article |
Lenguaje: | EN |
Publicado: |
MDPI AG
2021
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://doaj.org/article/62a59bcbe60c4ca2b50310a47f3a0116 |
Etiquetas: |
Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
|
Sumario: | Despite recent advances in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), less than 10% of patients survive the first five years when the disease has already spread at primary diagnosis. Methods: Blood samples were taken from 118 NSCLC patients at primary diagnosis or at progression of the disease before the start of a new treatment line and enriched for circulating tumor cells (CTCs) by microfluidic Parsortix™ (Angle plc, Guildford GU2 7AF, UK) technology. The gene expression of epithelial cancer stem cell (CSC), epithelial to mesenchymal (EMT), and lung-related markers was assessed by qPCR, and the association of each marker with overall survival (OS) was evaluated using log-rank tests. Results: EpCAM was the most prevalent transcript, with 53.7% positive samples at primary diagnosis and 25.6% at recurrence. EpCAM and CK19, as well as NANOG, PROM1, TERT, CDH5, FAM83A, and PTHLH transcripts, were associated with worse OS. However, only the CSC-specific NANOG and PROM1 were related to the outcome both at primary diagnosis (NANOG: HR 3.21, 95%CI 1.02–10.14, <i>p</i> = 0.016; PROM1: HR 4.23, 95% CI 0.65–27.56, <i>p</i> = 0.007) and disease progression (NANOG: HR 4.17, 95%CI 0.72–24.14, <i>p</i> = 0.025; PROM1: HR 4.77, 95% CI 0.29–78.94, <i>p</i> = 0.032). Conclusions: The present study further underlines the relevance of the molecular characterization of CTCs. Our multi-marker analysis highlighted the prognostic value of cancer stem cell-related transcripts at primary diagnosis and disease progression. |
---|