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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal Cancers: Colorectal Cancer
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2024.1531972
This article is part of the Research Topic Cancer Biomarkers: Molecular Insights into Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Risk Prediction View all 9 articles

Immunolipid Magnetic Bead-based Circulating Tumor Cell Sorting : A Novel Approach for Pathological Staging of Colorectal Cancer

Provisionally accepted
Qingyan Deng Qingyan Deng Weidong Li Weidong Li Yueming Huang Yueming Huang Haitao Wang Haitao Wang Xinhao Zhou Xinhao Zhou Zhifen Guan Zhifen Guan Bohao Cheng Bohao Cheng Yao Wang Yao Wang *
  • Zhongshan People's Hospital (ZSPH), Zhongshan, Guangdong, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: This study aimed to assess whether circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from colorectal cancer (CRC) could be used as an alternative to tissue samples for genetic mutation testing, overcoming the challenge of difficult tumor tissue acquisition. Methods: We developed an immunolipid magnetic bead (IMB) system modified with antibodies against epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) and vimentin to efficiently separate CTCs. We prepared EpCAM-modified IMBs (Ep-IMBs) and vimentin-modified IMBs (Vi-IMBs). The separation efficiency of the system was evaluated via in vitro experiments and by capturing and counting CTCs in blood samples from 23 CRC patients and 20 healthy controls. Hotspot mutations in patient tissue samples were identified via next-generation sequencing (NGS), whereas mutations in blood CTCs were detected via Sanger sequencing. The concordance between hotspot mutations in tumor tissue and blood CTCs was analyzed. Results: The CTC sorting system exhibited good dispersion, stability, and low cytotoxicity, with a specificity of 90.54% and a sensitivity of 89.07%. CRC patients had an average of 8.39 CTCs per 7.5 mL of blood, whereas healthy controls had 0.09 per 7.5 mL of blood. The consistency of gene mutations was as follows: TP53 (91.31%), PIK3CA (76.00%), KRAS (85.36%), BRAF (51.00%), APC (65.67%), and EGFR (74.00%), with an overall gene mutation consistency of 85.06%. Conclusion: Our CTC sorting system, which is based on Ep-IMBs and Vi-IMBs, effectively captures CTCs in the peripheral blood of CRC patients and enables clinical hotspot gene mutation testing via these enriched CTCs. This system partially solves the problem of difficult tumor tissue sample collection and provides a reference for gene mutation testing in early diagnosis, therapeutic efficacy evaluation, prognosis assessment, and minimal metastasis detection in CRC patients, showing significant potential for clinical application, especially in targeted therapy gene testing for CRC.

    Keywords: colorectal cancer, NGS sequencing, immunolipid magnetic bead, circulating tumor cells, mutations in tumor tissue

    Received: 21 Nov 2024; Accepted: 31 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Deng, Li, Huang, Wang, Zhou, Guan, Cheng and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yao Wang, Zhongshan People's Hospital (ZSPH), Zhongshan, 528403, Guangdong, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.