Challenges in enumeration of CTCs in breast cancer using techniques independent of cytokeratin expression.
<h4>Introduction</h4>Given the current postulated plasticity between epithelial and mesenchymal states of migratory cancer cells the detection of non-epithelial CTCs is an important scientific and clinical goal.<h4>Methods</h4>We used the filtration-based ISET technology to e...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2017-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0175647&type=printable |
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| Summary: | <h4>Introduction</h4>Given the current postulated plasticity between epithelial and mesenchymal states of migratory cancer cells the detection of non-epithelial CTCs is an important scientific and clinical goal.<h4>Methods</h4>We used the filtration-based ISET technology to enrich circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in early breast cancer blood samples and identify them using a morphology-based immunocytochemistry (ICC) approach.<h4>Results</h4>We found greater numbers of putative CTCs by this approach than by the cytokeratin-based CellSearch technology, but a high number of CTC false positives were identified in healthy volunteer samples which were not reduced in successive blood draws. Preliminary work using an oestrogen receptor (ER)-based multiplex ICC method in metastatic breast cancer ISET samples indicated a low number of ER+ CTCs even at this advanced stage.<h4>Conclusions</h4>This work highlights the challenges in enumerating CTCs without conventional epithelial markers. |
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| ISSN: | 1932-6203 |