Research Papers:
Significant prognostic value of circulating tumor cells in esophageal cancer patients: A meta-analysis
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Abstract
Shuyu Wang1, Hongyang Du2, Guixia Li1
1Medical Laboratory Department, Heze Municipal Hospital, Heze, Shandong, 274031 China
2Heze Centre for Adverse Drug Reactions Monitoring, Heze, Shangdong, 274000, China
Correspondence to:
Shuyu Wang, email: [email protected]
Keywords: esophageal cancer, circulating tumor cells, meta-analysis
Received: July 10, 2016 Accepted: January 03, 2017 Published: February 02, 2017
Abstract
Esophageal cancer is the sixth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is emerging as a novel strategy for predicting cancer patient prognosis. Here we performed a comprehensive literature search to identify relevant articles in EMbase, PubMed, EBSCO, OVID, Cochrane Database, CNKI, WanFangdata and VIPdata. Meta-analysis was conducted using Stata12.0 software, according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data and assessment methodology. Thirteen eligible literature studies were included with a total of 979 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients, including 424 CTC-positive and 684 CTC-negative cases. Meta-analysis showed that the presence of CTCs was associated with both worse progression-free/disease-free survival [hazard ration (HR) = 2.32, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.57 - 3.43, p < 0.001] and poorer overall survival [HR = 2.64, 95% CI = 1.69 - 4.14, p < 0.001]. Further subgroup analyses demonstrated that CTC-positive patients also showed worse progression-free/disease-free survival and poorer overall survival in different subsets. In summary, our meta-analysis provides strong evidence that detection of CTCs in the peripheral blood is an independent prognostic indicator of poor outcome for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients.

PII: 15012