Lung cancer biopsy dislodges tumor cells into circulating blood

• Published in: Journal of cancer metastasis and treatment Vol. 3; no. 1; pp. 16 - 20
• Main Authors: Sawabata, Noriyoshi, Kitamura, Tomotaka, Nitta, Yuko, Taketa, Tomoyo, Ohno, Takeshi, Fukumori, Tatsuya, Hyakutake, Takeru, Nakamura, Takahito
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Division of General Thoracic Surgery, Respiratory Center, Hoshigaoka Medical Center, Hirakata, Osaka 574-8511, Japan 23.01.2017
• Subjects: biopsy; circulating tumor cells; Lung cancer
• ISSN: 2394-4722; 2454-2857
• DOI: 10.20517/2394-4722.2016.67

Aim:A “seed” of lung cancer metastasis is circulating tumor cells (CTCs),which may be dislodged from a tumor during biopsy.This possibility was assessed among patients who underwent lung tumor biopsy using flexible fiber-topic bronchoscopy (FFB).Methods:The study involved six patients with non-small cell lung cancer who underwent FFB biopsy to diagnose a lesion pathologically (5 males and 1 female,median age 63 years,6 adenocarcinomas,of 4 clinical-stage IA,1 stage IB,and 1 stage ⅢA),CTCs were extracted from the peripheral vein blood at pre-FFB and at post-FFB using a size selection method.Results:No tumor cell was detected at pre-and post-FFB was in three cases (50％);no tumor cells were detected pre-FFB while CTCs were detected at post-FFB in two cases (33.3％);and CTCs were detected at pre-FFB with numerous CTCs detected at post-FFB in one case (17.7％).In addition,similar tendencies were observed in each analysis of singlecell and clustered-cell categories.Conclusion:These results suggest that a FFB biopsy of lung cancer may potentially dislodge CTCs from a tumor into the circulating peripheral blood.