Significance of CTC and CTEC values in the peripheral blood of subjects with skin tumors

Abstract

Objective To investigate the clinical utility of identifying circulating tumor cells (CTC) and circulating tumorigenic endothelial cells (CTEC) in skin malignancies. Methods Subtraction enrichment-immunostaining and fluorescence in situ hybridization (SE-iFISH) were used to detect the number of CTC and CTEC in the peripheral blood of 5 patients with skin tumor (tumor group) and 14 healthy individuals (healthy controls), and the detection rate was calculated. The subtype characteristics of CTC/CTEC and the correlation between the number of CTC/CTEC and the clinical characteristics of the patients were analyzed. Results The positive rates of CTC and CTEC in the tumor group were 100%. The average CTC were (6.93±8.18) /mL and CTEC were (1.60±1.03) /mL in the peripheral blood of the tumor group. The positive rates of CTC and CTEC in the healthy controls were both 64%. The average CTC were (0.19±0.21) /mL, and CTEC were (0.30±0.33) /mL in the peripheral blood of the healthy controls. Patients with larger diameter of tumor, lymph node metastasis, and clinical stages of III and IV had higher levels of CTC and CTEC; Large CTC accounted for 88.46% (184/208) of the total tumor cells, while large CTEC accounted for 81.25% (39/48) of the total tumor cells, which mainly were ≥ pentaploid CTC and CTEC. Conclusions Using SE-iFISH, the detection rates of CTC/CTEC are high in patients with skin tumors. The amounts of CTC and CTEC are correlated with the clinical features of patients. A higher proportion of CTC and CTEC is large multiploid cells in peripheral blood of subjects with skin tumors.

Keywords

• ctc
• ctec
• skin tumor
• subtraction enrichment-immunostaining and fluorescence in situ hybridization