Feasibility And Mechanism Of Predicting Distant Metastasis Of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma By Detecting Circulating Tumor Cells

1、Background:The release of circulating tumor cells(CTCs)into vasculature is an early event in the metastatic process and the detection of circulating tumor cells(CTCs)has been widely used clinically.Epithelial–mesenchymal transition(EMT)enables the detachment of tumor cells from a primary site to disseminate into the circulation,which eventually plant at distal sites through mesenchymal–epithelial transition(MET)to form metastases without responding to conventional treatment.And EMT process is also closely associated with cancer stem cells(CSCs)and their stemness properties,which is suggested the active source of failure responding to conventional therapy.However,the relationship between CTCs and CSCs in nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC)patients was largely unknown.2、MethodsSixty-nine NPC patients were enrolled in this study.The enumeration of CTCs in the peripheral blood were detected using Cyttel Bio circulating tumor cell detection technology.The expression of ALDH1A1~+CSCs in the tumor tissues of the corresponding patients were detected using immunohistochemistry.The prognostic value of the enumeration of CTCs and the correlation with ALDH1A1~+CSCs were evaluated.3、ResultsThe counts of CTCs were positively correlated with metastasis(P<0.001).The positive counts of CTCs were associated with poor overall survival(P=0.049).Furthermore,we found that there was positive relationship between the counts of CTCs and the expression of ALDH1A1+CSCs(P=0.003).The prognosis analysis also demonstrated that high ALDH1A1 expression was correlated with poor overall survival(P=0.002).4、ConclusionOur study demonstrated that there was positive correlation between the detection of CTCs and the expression of CSCs,both were positively correlated with metastasis and poor prognosis.These results indicated that the count of CTCs might indirectly reflect the expression of CSCs.