Circulating tumor cells and their relationship with clinical and morphological characteristics of colorectal cancer

Aim. To investigate the dependence of the number of circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood of colorectal cancer patients on the clinical and morphological characteristics of underlying disease.

Methods. 91 patients with verified metastatic colorectal cancer Т3-4N1-2М1 were included in the study. The average age of the patients was 61.5±1.7 years. The patients were divided into the study group (laparoscopic surgical treatment, n=44) and control group (open surgical intervention, n=47). The number of circulating tumor cells was determined in CellSearch™ system in the peripheral blood drawn before the intervention. The study of the association of attributes by constructing contingency tables consisted in calculating Pearson’s contingency coefficient c2 with Mantel-Haenszel correction for likelihood (nonparametric correction), estimating statistical significance of contingency and analyzing the tightness of the association by A. Chuprov’s mutual contingency coefficient.

Results. We found contingency of the number of circulating tumor cells with clinical and morphological parameters of patients with colorectal cancer. The relationship between potential risk factors and increase of the number of circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood was observed in all colorectal cancer patients, regardless of the surgical intervention method. The most pronounced association of the number of circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood of metastatic colorectal cancer patients before surgery according to the mutual contingency coefficient (K) was shown to be with present distant metastases (status M1b; K=0.63, p=0.0001) and stage T4 (K=0.56, p=0.0009).

Conclusion. The obtained results emphasize the important predictive significance of the circulating tumor cells level in peripheral blood for assessment of the potential for colorectal cancer progression.