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. 2022 May 18:12:839597.
doi: 10.3389/fonc.2022.839597. eCollection 2022.

Guiding Value of Circulating Tumor Cells for Preoperative Transcatheter Arterial Embolization in Solitary Large Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Single-Center Retrospective Clinical Study

Qiao Zhang  1 , Feng Xia  2 , Ali Mo  1 , Weiming He  1 , Jiazhen Chen  1 , Weiqiao Zhang  1 , Weiqiang Chen  1
Affiliations

Guiding Value of Circulating Tumor Cells for Preoperative Transcatheter Arterial Embolization in Solitary Large Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Single-Center Retrospective Clinical Study

Qiao Zhang et al. Front Oncol. .

Abstract

Background: Large hepatocellular carcinoma (LHCC) is highly malignant and prone to recurrence, leading to a poor long-term prognosis for patients. There is an urgent need for measures to intervene in postoperative recurrence. Preoperative Transcatheter Arterial Embolization (TACE) is an effective treatment. However, there is a lack of reliable preoperative indicators to guide the application of preoperative TACE. We, therefore, investigated whether the preoperative status of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) could be used to guide preoperative TACE for HCC treatment.

Methods: This study recruited 361 HCC patients and compared recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients treated with TACE prior to surgery and those not treated with TACE. Patients were divided into CTC-positive group and CTC-negative group according to CTC status, and the effect of preoperative TACE on RFS and OS was compared in each subgroup.

Results: In CTC-positive patients, preoperative TACE reduces early recurrence and improves long-term survival. However, HCC patients did not benefit from preoperative TACE for the overall population and CTC-negative patients.

Conclusions: Preoperative CTC testing is a reliable indicator of whether HCC patients received TACE preoperatively. CTC positivity was associated with early tumor recurrence, and preoperative TACE could reduce early recurrence and long-term prognosis in CTC-positive patients.

Keywords: TACE; circulating tumor cells; hepatocellular carcinoma; preoperative transcatheter arterial embolization; prognosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overall (A) and recurrence-free (B) survival curves of overall HCC patients with or without preoperative TACE.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overall (A) and recurrence-free (B) survival curves of HCC patients in CTC-positive patients with or without preoperative TACE.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Overall (A) and recurrence-free (B) survival curves of HCC patients in CTC-negative patients with or without preoperative TACE.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Analysis of the effect of preoperative TACE on early and late postoperative recurrence in CTC positive (A) and CTC negative (B) HCC patients by landmark method.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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