The detection of circulating tumor cells in the varying stages of breast cancer patients' blood

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women cause of cancer death worldwide. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are rare cancer cells that might represent prognostic information as a tumor biomarker for breast cancer patients. The presence of CTCs in breast cancer has been associated with worse prognosis. For this reason, we aim to evaluate the association amoung the status of ER and PR, c-erb-B2 values and the levels of serum tumor markers (CEA and CA15-3), tumor stages and CTC count in breast cancer patients. The study is conducted with 11 breast cancer patients and 8 healthy volunteer women. Peripheral blood samples are seperated by ficoll gradient and negatively selected with CD45 magnetic microbeads. The enriched cells are labelled with antibodies such as Anti-CK(14,15,16,19), Anti-CK(7,8), Anti-EpCAM, Anti-CD45, Anti-CD44 and Anti-CD24 for detection step. All cells are analysed by BD FACS Aria™ III Cell Sorter. We classify CTCs as subpopulations such as CK+CTC, EpCAM+CTC, CK+CSC, EpCAM+CSC, and CSC by our gating strategies. The results of our statistical analyses indicate that a large number of CTCs are counted in patients group compare to the control group. The results show that there is no a significant relationship amoung tumor stages, the status of ER and PR, c-erb-B2 values and CTC count in breast cancer patients (p<0.05). Furthermore, no correlation is found between CTC count and serum tumor markers in breast cancer patients, but a significant correlation is shown between the presence of EpCAM+CTC and CEA levels.