International Journal of Pharmacology

Volume 18 (2), 199-206, 2022


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Circulating Tumor Cells as a Risk Factor for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treated with EGFR-TKI

Yue Liu, Congying Fan, Haiyan Hu, Yaowen Yang, Shuning Yan, Yuelan Gu, Meng Ding, Pengfei Li, Yanling Wang, Hongyan Wang and Qie Yang

Background and Objective: Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) are associated with the prognosis of many human cancers. This study aimed to investigate the clinical significance of CTCs in patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with EGFR-TKI. Materials and Methods: This prospective observational study recruited a total of 120 cases of advanced NSCLC patients who were admitted from January, 2018 to July, 2020. All patients received the first-line treatment of EFFG-TKI treatment of gefitinib 250 mg/day or erlotinib 150 mg/day. Patients with Progressive Disease (PD) after 3 months of treatment were regarded as resistant to the treatment. The levels of CTC were measured before treatment and after 3 months of treatment by the Cell Search system. Cancer-related biomarkers CA125, CEA, CA199 and Ki67 were measured using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: Deceased patients showed a significantly higher ratio of TNM stage IV and more CTCs compared with the survival cases. A high number of CTCs was positively correlated with CA125, CEA, Ki67 and CA199. In all patients, 161 cases (44.11%) showed resistance to EGFR-TKI treatment. After treatment of 3 months, the CTCs levels and serum CA125 levels were remarkably decreased in non-resistant patients. Patients with CTC≥5 and patients with higher expression of CA125 had markedly shorter 1 year survival. Conclusion: Higher CTCs might be associated with poor clinical outcomes and prognosis and higher CTCs and CA125 levels might predict a higher risk for resistance of EGFR-TKI treatment in NSCLC patients.

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How to cite this article:

Yue Liu, Congying Fan, Haiyan Hu, Yaowen Yang, Shuning Yan, Yuelan Gu, Meng Ding, Pengfei Li, Yanling Wang, Hongyan Wang and Qie Yang, 2022. Circulating Tumor Cells as a Risk Factor for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treated with EGFR-TKI. International Journal of Pharmacology, 18: 199-206.


DOI: 10.3923/ijp.2022.199.206
URL: https://ansinet.com/abstract.php?doi=ijp.2022.199.206

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