Circulating tumor cells as liquid biomarker for high HCC recurrence risk after curative liver resection

• Published in: Oncotarget 2017-10, Vol.8 (52), p.89978-89987
• Main Authors: von Felden, Johann, Schulze, Kornelius, Krech, Till, Ewald, Florian, Nashan, Björn, Pantel, Klaus, Lohse, Ansgar W, Riethdorf, Sabine, Wege, Henning
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Research Paper
• ISSN: 1949-2553; 1949-2553
• DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.21208

Early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has a limited prognosis due to recurrence rates of more than 50% after liver resection. Recurrence within two years is believed to be caused by untraceable micro metastases at the time of resection. The objective of this study was to investigate EpCAM-positive circulating tumor cells (CTC) as liquid biomarker to identify patients with high risk of recurrence after liver resection. 61 patients undergoing resection between 2011 and 2015 were consecutively enrolled. Blood specimens were obtained prior to surgery and processed with the CellSearch system, detecting EpCAM-positive CTC. The primary endpoint was recurrence-free survival (RFS). 13 women and 44 men (63.6 ± 11.1 years) were finally evaluated. CTC-positive patients had a significantly higher risk of recurrence with a hazard ratio (HR) of 2.3 (p=0.027), and a shorter RFS compared to CTC-negative patients (5.0 ± 1.5 vs. 12.0 ± 2.5 months, p=0.039). As expected, incomplete resection (R1) was also associated with shorter RFS (HR=2.6, p=0.035), but vascular invasion was not. However, the predictive power of CTC status was independent of R1. Bloodstream detection of CTC prior to curative-intended liver resection discloses an elevated risk of HCC recurrence and could identify patients, who might benefit from adjuvant treatment.