[Peripheral blood circulating tumor cells in local advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma]

Objective: To investigate the value of detecting circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patients with local advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (LAHNSCC). Methods: Twenty cases of LAHNSCC and eight healthy cases as the negative control were collected. The clinicopathological factors were evaluated. The LAHNSCC CTCs were enriched by specific antibody nanofluidic chip immunoassay using CytoSorter CTCs sorting system. LAHNSCC CTCs were identified by immunofluorescence staining. The relationships between CTCs and the clinicopathological features of LAHNSCC were analyzed. The numbers of CTCs were monitored and compared two weeks after inductive chemotherapy and at the end of the treatment. Results: CTCs were detect in 15 (75%) 20 patients with LASHNCC, with an average number of 22.4 CTCs. There was a correlation between the numbers of CTCs and age or N staging (P<0.05). Among the 15 cases with CTCs, 13 cases received inductive chemotherapy, for whom CTCs were detected again after inductive chemotherapy in all of these 13 patients, with an average number of 9.5 CTCs. Ten of the fourteen cases (71.4%) were still CTCs detected After whole treatments CTCs were detected in 14 patients, of them, 10 (71.4%) patients showed positive CTCs, with an average 1.6 CTCs. The numbers of CTCs decreased after either inductive chemotherapy or the whole treatment. The number of detected CTCs after whole treatment decreased nearly to background levels. Conclusions: CTCs have a high detection rate in the peripheral blood of patients with LAHNSCC, especially in patients ≥60 years old and with ≥ N2 stage before treatment. Real-time detection of dynamic change of CTCs may assist to evaluate therapeutic effect.