SE-iFISH used in the detection of circulating tumor cells in patients of hepatocellular carcinoma

Objective To investigate the correlation between patients clinical characteristics and the number and subtype of circulating tumor cells (CTCs)from peripheral blood of perioperative hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)patients by SE-iFISH. Methods 20 HCC patients undergoing radical resection were enrolled from June 2015 to June 2016. The SE-iFISH technique was used to separate and identify circulating tumor cells. The pathology and clinical data were used to evaluate patients survival in combination with CTCs characteristics. Results A total of 347 CTCs were detected, of which 114 were triploid, 64 were tetraploid, and 165 were pentaploid. The number of preoperative CTCs and the number of preoperative triploids was significantly correlated with the presence of vascular tumor emboli (Z1=-2.080, P=0.037, Z3=-2.321, P=0.020)and TNM staging(Z2=-2.148, P=0.032, Z4=-2.526, P=0.012). Postoperative patients disease-free survival in high CTCs detection group was significantly shorter than that of CTCs low expression group (χ21=7.486, P=0.006, χ22=12.056, P=0.001). Conclusion Detection of the number and the specific subtypes of CTCs with SE-iFISH strategy in patients with HCC help predict treatment efficacy and prognosis. Key words: Carcinoma, hepatocellular; Neoplastic cells, circulating; Survival analysis