This study investigated possible correlations between the presence of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and the pathologic types and staging of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) during the early postoperative period. Sixty-nine patients with NSCLC were enrolled in the study. Clinical staging was performed by postoperative pathological examination and imaging. Multiple mRNA in situ analyses targeting specifically expressed genes were carried out to identify the presence of CTCs. Correlations between age, sex, TNM stage and pathological types with the detection rate of CTCs were also established. The results showed the positivity rate of CTCs in patients >55 years was significantly higher than that of patients <55 years (94.74 vs. 70.97%, P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the positivity rate of CTCs between male and female patients (85.71 vs. 85.29%, P>0.05). The correlations between the detection rate of epithelial type or mixed type CTCs with tumor size, lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis TNM in patients with NSCLC were not significant (P>0.05). However, higher TNM stages correlated with higher detection rates of mesenchymal CTCs (P<0.05). There were also significant differences in the detection rates of CTCs amongst the three different pathologic types (adenocarcinoma, squamous cell and large cell carcinomas) (P<0.05). Based on our results, the detection of mesenchymal CTCs during the early postoperative period can help prognosticate the recurrence and metastasis of NSCLC, which is beneficial to the development of individualized treatment strategies.
Keywords: circulating tumor cells; non-small cell lung cancer; pathological stage; pathological type.