Detection of folate receptor‐positive circulating tumor cells as a biomarker for diagnosis, prognostication, and therapeutic monitoring in breast cancer

Objectives This study is to explore the clinical significance of folate receptor‐positive circulating tumor cells (FR+CTC) in the early diagnosis and disease progress in patients with breast cancer. Methods Folate receptor‐positive circulating tumor cells was enriched from peripheral blood of the patients with immunomagnetic separation method and quantitated by folate receptor on the CTC with the ligand‐targeted PCR. Results The levels of FR+CTC were significantly higher in breast cancer patients compared with healthy controls. Detective rate of FR+CTC was decreased in 19 of 27 patients underwent the surgery in 2 weeks post‐operation compared with pre‐operation; statistical analysis showed the difference was significant. We also found that the combination of FR+CTC, CEA, CA125, and CA153 can significantly improve the diagnostic efficiency for breast cancer. Conclusions This study showed the detective rate of FR+CTC is significantly increased in the patients with breast cancer, and the detective level is associated with disease progress.
In this paper, FR+CTC was detected in peripheral blood of the patients with breast cancer with the ligand‐targeted PCR. The levels of FR+CTC were significantly higher in breast cancer patients compared to healthy controls and the FR+CTC level were significantly higher in the distant metastasis and high TNM stage. The level of FR+CTC was decreased underwent the surgery in 2 weeks post‐operation compared to pre‐operation. The detection sensitivity and specificity of FR+CTC was higher diagnostic efficacy than other biomarkers, such as CEA, CA125, and CA153. This study showed that may be used as a potential biomarker for auxiliary diagnosis and early detection particularly combined with other biomarkers assay in breast cancer.