EpCAM-CD24+ circulating cells associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer patients

Following the discovery of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the peripheral blood of cancer patients, CTCs were initially postulated to hold promise as a valuable prognostic tool through liquid biopsy. However, a decade and a half of accumulated data have revealed significant complexities in the investigation of CTCs. A challenging aspect lies in the reduced expression or complete loss of key epithelial markers during the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). This likely hampers the identification of a pathogenetically significant subset of CTCs. Nevertheless, there is a growing body of evidence regarding the prognostic value of such molecules as CD24 expressing in the primary breast tumor. Herewith, the exact relevance of CD24 expression on CTCs remains unclear. We used two epithelial markers (EpCAM and cytokeratin 7/8) to assess the count of CTCs in 57 breast cancer patients, both with (M0^mts) and without metastasis (M0) during the follow-up period, as well as in M1 breast cancer patients. However, the investigation of these epithelial markers proved ineffective in identifying cell population expressing different combinations of EpCAM and cytokeratin 7/8 with prognostic significance for breast cancer metastases. Surprisingly, we found CD24+ circulating cells (CCs) in peripheral blood of breast cancer patients which have no epithelial markers (EpCAM and cytokeratin 7/8) but was strongly associated with distant metastasis. Namely, the count of CD45-EpCAM-CK7/8-CD24+ N-cadherin-CCs was elevated in both groups of patients, those with existing metastasis and those who developed metastases during the follow-up period. Simultaneously, an elevation in these cell counts beyond the established threshold of 218.3 cells per 1 mL of blood in patients prior to any treatment predicted a 12-fold risk of metastases, along with a threefold decrease in distant metastasis-free survival over a 90-month follow-up period. The origin of CD45-EpCAM-CK7/8-CD24+ N-cadherin-CCs remains unclear. In our opinion their existence can be explained by two most probable hypotheses. These cells could exhibit a terminal EMT phenotype, or it might be immature cells originating from the bone marrow. Nonetheless, if this hypothesis holds true, it's worth noting that the mentioned CCs do not align with any of the recognized stages of monocyte or neutrophil maturation, primarily due to the presence of CD45 expression in the myeloid cells. The results suggest the presence in the peripheral blood of patients with metastasis (both during the follow-up period and prior to inclusion in the study) of a cell population with a currently unspecified origin, possibly arising from both myeloid and tumor sources, as confirmed by the presence of aneuploidy.