EGFR expression in circulating tumor cells from high-grade Metastatic Sarcomas.

EGFR expression in circulating tumor cells from high-grade Metastatic Sarcomas.

Cancer Biol Ther. 2018 Feb 02;:0

Authors: Braun AC, de Mello CAL, Corassa M, Abdallah EA, Urvanegia AC, Alves VS, Troncarelli B, Díaz M, Nicolau UR, Souza E Silva V, Calsavara V, Paterlini-Brechót P, Chinen LTD

Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Soft tissue Sarcomas (STS) are rare malignances, with high mortality rates. Half of patients develop metastasis. The presence of isolated Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) and Circulating Tumor Microemboli (CTM) in the blood may be early markers of tumor invasion. EGF family receptors can also influence this process.
OBJECTIVES: to quantify CTCs and identify CTM as well as the EGFR protein expression in these cells and correlate with clinical outcome in metastatic STS.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Approximately 8mL of blood was prospectively collected from patients with different types of high grade STS, before the beginning of chemotherapy. The samples were processed and filtered by ISET (Rarecells, France) for the isolation and quantification of CTCs and CTMs. EGFR expression was analysed by immunocytochemistry (ICC) on CTCs/ CTMs.
RESULTS: we analyzed 18 patients with median age of 49 years18-77. The median CTCs number was 2.0 CTCs/mL (0-11 CTCs/mL) and CTM were found in 27.7% of patients. The positivity for EGFR in CTCs was observed in 83.3% of the patients. Progression-free survival (PFS) of positive EGFR staining compared to negative EGFR in CTCs was 2.2 months x NR (not reached) (p = 0.117). The PFS of first line patients with EGFR + CTCs was 2.2 months versus NR, for EGFR- CTCs (p = 0.156).
CONCLUSIONS: this is the first study to demonstrate the expression of EGFR protein in CTCs from sarcoma patients. Although our findings had not reach statistical significance, they could open an area for future investigation. The next step is to characterize CTCs in a larger cohort of patients to better understand the role of EGFR in promoting tumor metastasis in sarcoma.

PMID: 29394136 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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