Diagnosis and Monitoring Value of Circulating Tumour Cells in Breast Cancer With an Optimised Microfluidic Device: A Retrospective Study

Background: Currently, there are various platforms for circulating tumor cells (CTCs) detection that need further improvement. Here we performed CTCs detection with a novel automatic CTCs isolation and enrichment platform, CytoBot ® 2000. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study with186 breast cancer patients and 20 healthy volunteers. Peripheral blood was obtained and the CTCs were detected immediately. The performance of CytoBot ® 2000 was verified by spiking assay and clinical samples through the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The number of CTCs and CD45 positive CTCs were analyzed along with clinicopathologic features and clinical therapies. Additionally, a short-term follow-up review was presented for treatment monitoring with CTC. Results: CTCs were discovered in 119 of 137 patients (86.86%) with malignant tumors and 31 of 49 patients (63.27%) with benign carcinoid, but not in healthy group. Statistical analysis revealed that CTCs could easily distinguish malignant breast cancer from benign carcinoid (P < 0.0001). Notably, CTCs were significantly correlated with tumour progression (P = 0.0216). When the cut-off value was 2, the ROC curve estimated the sensitivity and specificity of 74.5% and 81.2%, respectively. The number of CTC was significantly associated with tumour TNM stage (P = 0.032) and tumour size (P = 0.0326). In retrospective follow-up, the majority of patients (65.22%) exhibited a reduction in CTCs enumeration because of improved treatment. Additionally, the increased proportion of CD45 positive CTCs has found during treatment with different strategies. Conclusion: The CTCs enumeration on CytoBot 2000® platform could accurately respond to the clinical diagnosis and treatment. CTCs and CD45 positive CTCs both have significance in clinical indication of cancer diagnosis and monitoring.