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Circulating tumor cells: a valuable indicator for locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma

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Abstract

Background

Advancements in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) treatment have led to a focus on personalized treatment. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are important for liquid biopsies and personalized treatment but are not being fully utilized. This study examined how pre- and post-treatment CTC counts, EMT subtypes, clinical characteristics, and patient prognosis are related in order to support the use of liquid biopsy in managing NPC.

Methods

This retrospective study included 141 patients with locally advanced NPC. All patients underwent CanPatrol™ CTC detection pre- and post-treatment and were categorized into EMT subtypes: epithelial type, mixed type, and mesenchymal type. This study analyzed CTC enumeration, EMT subtypes, and their associations with clinical characteristics and survival outcomes.

Results

The results indicated a positive correlation between the pre-treatment detection rate of CTCs and N stage (P < 0.01), alongside a positive correlation with the TNM clinical stage (P = 0.02). Additionally, the detection rate of mesenchymal CTCs post-treatment is positively associated with the N stage (P = 0.02). The enumeration of CTCs pre- and post-treatment is negatively correlated with prognosis and has statistical significance. Additionally, an investigation into the EMT subtypes of CTCs revealed a significant association between the presence of mesenchymal CTCs pre- and post-treatment and decreased overall survival (OS) (P < 0.05). Furthermore, T stage, N stage, TNM clinical stage, and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA were also significantly correlated with OS.

Conclusion

The study found that mesenchymal CTCs pre- and post-treatment, as well as the number of CTCs, were linked to a poor prognosis.

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Data availability

Data for this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the patients, investigators, and institutions involved in this study.

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71964003, 81460460, 81760542, 82260467), The Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (No. 2018JJA141048).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiation Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China

    Ting Liu, Guimei Wang, Chunmei Chen, Lihe He & Rensheng Wang

  2. Department of Infectious Diseases, People’s Hospital of Zhong Shan County, Hezhou, China

    Jing Liu

  3. Guangxi Key Laboratory of High-Incidence-Tumor Prevention and Treatment, Ministry of Education, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China

    Rensheng Wang

  4. Department of Radiation Oncology, Liuzhou People’s Hospital, Liuzhou, China

    Chunli Ouyang

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  1. Ting Liu
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Ting Liu, Chunmei Chen, Lihe He, Jing Liu; Methodology: Ting Liu, Guimei Wang; Formal analysis and investigation: Ting Liu, Guimei Wang; Writing—original draft preparation: Ting Liu, Chunmei Chen, Lihe He, Jing Liu; Writing—review and editing: Ting Liu, Chunmei Chen; Funding acquisition: Rensheng Wang; Resources: Rensheng Wang; Supervision: Ting Liu, Rensheng Wang, Chunli Ouyang.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Rensheng Wang or Chunli Ouyang.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Institutional review board statement

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University (2024-E178-01, March 13, 2024).

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All participants in the study received informed consent.

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Liu, T., Liu, J., Wang, G. et al. Circulating tumor cells: a valuable indicator for locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-024-08714-w

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