Prognostic and clinicopathological significance of circulating tumor cells in osteosarcoma

Publication date: Available online 3 April 2019Source: Journal of Bone OncologyAuthor(s): Minghui Li, Yajie Lu, Zuoyao Long, Mengyang Li, Jing Kong, Guojing Chen, Zhen WangAbstractOsteosarcoma is the most common form of primary malignant bone tumor, with metastasis playing an essential role in determining a patient's prospects for survival. It is essential that new and better molecular targets that respond effectively to therapies and are predictive of the risk of tumor metastasis are identified. We have therefore undertaken the present prospective study to ascertain the clinical significance of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in osteosarcoma patients. Peripheral blood was obtained from patients both pre- and post-surgery then processed using a CanPatrolTM system, an enrichment technique allowing isolation of CTCs by virtue of their size at baseline. Multiplex RNA in situ hybridization (RNA-ISH) was subsequently conducted to characterize the CTCs based on various molecular markers including MTA1, CD45, EpCAM, CK8, CK19, Vimentin and Twist. MTA1 expression was further validated by immunohistochemistry of the tumor tissue. Besides defining a diagnosis and prognosis for osteosarcoma patients, the correlation between CTC count and their molecular and clinicopathological characteristics was found to assist in the analysis of the response of patients to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Our results revealed that the number of CTCs was significantly higher at baseline in metastatic patients ...
Source: Journal of Bone Oncology - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research