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Prognostic significance of circulating tumor cells in patients with advanced esophageal cancer

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Abstract

Introduction

The purpose of this study was to establish the clinicopathological significance of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patients with advanced or recurrent esophageal cancer who received either chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy.

Methods

CTCs from 38 patients with advanced or recurrent esophageal cancer were quantified using the CellSearch system before and approximately 3–5 weeks after the initiation of a new line of chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. The correlation between CTC counts and clinicopathological variables was examined.

Results

Of the 38 patients, 15 (39 %) had recurrent esophageal cancer, and 23 patients (61 %) had primary advanced esophageal cancer. The mean age was 63 years (range 43–87 years). One patient (2.6 %) had a complete response to treatment, 16 (42.1 %) had a partial response, 12 (31.6 %) showed stable disease, and nine (23.7 %) showed signs of progressive disease. The overall survival of patients with ≥2 CTCs was significantly shorter than that of patients with <2 CTCs both at baseline and at first follow-up (p = 0.047 and p = 0.011, respectively). Significant correlation was found between the change in CTC counts and the response to treatment (p = 0.036). The overall survival in patients with ≥2 CTCs both at baseline and at first follow-up was significantly shorter than patients with <2 CTCs both at baseline and at first follow-up (p = 0.002). Patients with a reduction rate in the CTC value <80 % experienced significantly shorter survival than patients with a reduction rate of ≥80 % (p = 0.035). The CTC counts at first follow-up served as an independent prognostic factor (p = 0.011).

Conclusions

Our results suggest that measuring the number of CTCs in patients with advanced or recurrent esophageal cancer can be useful for predicting the survival of patients and for monitoring the response to cancer treatments.

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Ethical Statement

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Keio University School of Medicine and was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 and 2008.

Conflict of interest

There are no financial or other relations that could lead to a conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 160-8582, Japan

    Motomu Tanaka, Hiroya Takeuchi, Yoshiki Osaki, Kunihiko Hiraiwa, Rieko Nakamura, Takashi Oyama, Tsunehiro Takahashi, Norihito Wada, Hirofumi Kawakubo, Yoshiro Saikawa, Tai Omori & Yuko Kitagawa

Authors
  1. Motomu Tanaka
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  2. Hiroya Takeuchi
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  3. Yoshiki Osaki
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  4. Kunihiko Hiraiwa
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  5. Rieko Nakamura
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  6. Takashi Oyama
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  7. Tsunehiro Takahashi
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  8. Norihito Wada
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  9. Hirofumi Kawakubo
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  10. Yoshiro Saikawa
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  11. Tai Omori
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  12. Yuko Kitagawa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hiroya Takeuchi.

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Tanaka, M., Takeuchi, H., Osaki, Y. et al. Prognostic significance of circulating tumor cells in patients with advanced esophageal cancer. Esophagus 12, 352–359 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10388-014-0482-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10388-014-0482-0

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