Detection of Epithelial-mesenchymal Transition Status of Circulating Tumor Cells in Patients with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

doi:10.13701/j.cnki.kqyxyj.2022.01.008

Abstract

Abstract: Objective: To investigate the correlation between the status of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Methods: CanPatrol^TM CTC-enrichment and situ hybridizatio (ISH) were used to isolate, identify, and classify CTCs from blood of 32 OSCC patients. Blood was collected from OSCC patients at 1 day before operation. CTCs were identified and characterized according to the EMT markers. Results: CTCs were classified into three subpopulations based on EMT markers: epithelial CTCs (e-CTCs), epithelial-mesenchymal-mixed CTCs (mix-CTC), and mesenchymal CTCs (m-CTCs). Total 198 CTCs were detected in all patients: 56 (28.3%) CTCs of them were e-CTCs, 128 (64.6%) were mix-CTCs, and 14 (7.1%) were m-CTCs. The average number of CTCs from each patient was 6.19±6.07 which included 1.75±1.91 of e-CTCs, 4.00±5.77 of mix-CTCs, and 0.44±0.63 of m---CTCs. The number of total CTCs was correlated with the number of mix-CTCs (r²=0.908, P<0.001). The number of e-CTCs was correlated with lymph node metastasis (r²=0.278, P<0.05) and TNM stage (r²=0.278, P<0.05) in this study.The number of total CTCs was correlated with recurrence or metastasi (r²=0.252, P<0.05). Conclusion: Mix-CTCs and e-CTCs might play an important role in the progression of OSCC, and the number of CTCs in OSCC might have the potential to be a predictor of prognosis.

Key words: oral squamous cell carcinoma, circulating tumor cells, epithelial-mesenchymal transition

LI Yang, LI Wen, CHEN Zhuo, LI Shuaize, QIAO Bin. Detection of Epithelial-mesenchymal Transition Status of Circulating Tumor Cells in Patients with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma[J]. Journal of Oral Science Research, 2022, 38(1): 34-38.

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