Circulating endothelial cells in non-small cell lung cancer patients treated with carboplatin and paclitaxel

Circulating endothelial cells (CECs) increase in cancer patients and play an important role in tumor neovascularization.

This study was designed to investigate the role of CEC as a marker for predicting the effectiveness of a carboplatin plus paclitaxel based first line chemotherapy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The CEC count in 4 ml of peripheral blood before starting chemotherapy (baseline value) was significantly higher in NSCLC patients, ranging from 32 to 4501/4 ml (n = 31, mean +/- SD = 595 +/- 832), than in healthy volunteers (n = 53, 46.2 +/- 86.3). We did not detect a significant correlation between the CEC count and estimated tumor volume. CECs were significantly decreased by chemotherapy as compared with pretreatment values (175.6 +/- 24 and 173.0 +/- 24, day +8, +22, respectively). We investigated the correlation between baseline CEC and the clinical effectiveness of chemotherapy. CEC values are significantly higher in patients with clinical benefit (partial response and stable disease, 516 +/- 458, 870.8 +/- 1215, respectively) than in progressive disease patients (211 +/- 150). Furthermore, a statistically significant decrease in CECs, on day 22, was observed only in patients with partial response. Patients who had a baseline CEC count greater than 400/4 ml showed a longer progression-free survival (>400, 271 days [range: 181-361] versus <400, 34 [range: 81-186], p = 0.019).

CEC is suggested to be a promising predictive marker of the clinical efficacy of the CBDCA plus paclitaxel regimen in patients with NSCLC.