Sequential circulating tumor cell counts in patients with locally advanced or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma: Monitoring the treatment response

Kun Ming Rau, Chien Ting Liu, Yu Chiao Hsiao, Kai Yin Hsiao, Tzu Min Wang, Wei Shan Hung, Yu Li Su, Wei Ching Liu, Cheng Hsu Wang, Hsueh Ling Hsu, Po Heng Chuang, Ju Chien Cheng, Ching Ping Tseng*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is among the most common causes of cancer death in men. Whether or not a longitudinal follow-up of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) before and at different time points during systemic/targeted therapy is useful for monitoring the treatment response of patients with locally advanced or metastatic HCC has been evaluated in this study. Blood samples (n = 104) were obtained from patients with locally advanced or metastatic HCC (n = 30) for the enrichment of CTCs by a negative selection method. Analysis of the blood samples from patients with defined disease status (n = 81) revealed that those with progressive disease (PD, n = 37) had significantly higher CTC counts compared to those with a partial response (PR) or stable disease (SD; n = 44 for PR + SD, p = 0.0002). The median CTC count for patients with PD and for patients with PR and SD was 50 (interquartile range 21–139) and 15 (interquartile range 4–41) cells/mL of blood, respectively. A longitudinal analysis of patients (n = 17) after a series of blood collections demonstrated that a change in the CTC count correlated with the patient treatment response in most of the cases and was particularly useful for monitoring patients without elevated serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels. Sequential CTC enumeration during treatment can supplement standard medical tests and benefit the management of patients with locally advanced or metastatic HCC, in particular for the AFP-low cases.

Original languageEnglish
Article number188
JournalJournal of Clinical Medicine
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 01 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

  • Alpha-fetoprotein
  • Circulating tumor cells
  • Hepatocellular carcinoma
  • Longitudinal follow-up

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