Cancer Stem Cell-Like Circulating Tumor Cells Are Prognostic in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Despite recent advances in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), less than 10% of patients survive the first five years when the disease has already spread at primary diagnosis.

Blood samples were taken from 118 NSCLC patients at primary diagnosis or at progression of the disease before the start of a new treatment line and enriched for circulating tumor cells (CTCs) by microfluidic Parsortix™ (Angle plc, Guildford GU2 7AF, UK) technology. The gene expression of epithelial cancer stem cell (CSC), epithelial to mesenchymal (EMT), and lung-related markers was assessed by qPCR, and the association of each marker with overall survival (OS) was evaluated using log-rank tests.

EpCAM was the most prevalent transcript, with 53.7% positive samples at primary diagnosis and 25.6% at recurrence. EpCAM and CK19, as well as NANOG, PROM1, TERT, CDH5, FAM83A, and PTHLH transcripts, were associated with worse OS. However, only the CSC-specific NANOG and PROM1 were related to the outcome both at primary diagnosis (NANOG: HR 3.21, 95%CI 1.02-10.14, p = 0.016; PROM1: HR 4.23, 95% CI 0.65-27.56, p = 0.007) and disease progression (NANOG: HR 4.17, 95%CI 0.72-24.14, p = 0.025; PROM1: HR 4.77, 95% CI 0.29-78.94, p = 0.032).

The present study further underlines the relevance of the molecular characterization of CTCs. Our multi-marker analysis highlighted the prognostic value of cancer stem cell-related transcripts at primary diagnosis and disease progression.