Clinical Significance and the Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells in Peripheral Blood of Patients with Breast Cancer

ABSTRACT Aim: To explore the detection methods of detecting circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in peripheral blood of breast cancer patients using multiparameter flow cytometry (FCM) and analyze its clinical significance. Methods: The breast cancer cell line SKBR-3 was serially diluted and added into the peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy donors to evaluate the sensitivity of FCM. Mononuclear cells were isolated from 7.5 mL peripheral venous blood of 62 patients with breast cancer and 20 cases of healthy volunteers using density gradient centrifugation. Superspeed flow cytometry were used to detect expression level of immunofluorescence antibody (EpCAM、CK18 and CD45). The amount of CTCs ≥ 5/7.5 ml in peripheral blood was considered micrometastases positive. Results: The expression of CTCs in 20 healthy volunteers was all negative, while the positive rate was 53.2% in 62 case breast cancer patients, the difference was significant (P 0.05). The positive rate of CTCs gradually increased with positive rate of TNM staging ranks. The positive rate of CTCs was significant different among different breast cancer molecular subtypes (P Conclusions: The sensitivity and specificity of the detection of CTCs using ultra high speed flow cytometry was high. The positive rate CTCs in breast cancer patients was related to its clinical TNM staging, the expression of Ki 67 and HER-2, but unrelated to menopausal status, the expression of ER and PR. Breast cancer molecular subtypes can assess the risk of peripheral blood micrometastases, the positive rate of CTCs was high in HER-2 amplification type and triple-negative type. Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.