Gastroenterology, 2014: Detection of Circulating Pancreas Epithelial Cells in Patients With Pancreatic Cystic Lesions
Citation: Rhim AD, Thege FI, Santana, SM, Lannin, TB, Saha, TN, Tsai S, Maggs LR, Kochman ML, Ginsberg GG, Lieb JG, Chandrasekhara V, Drebin JA, Ahmad N, Yang YX, Kirby BJ, Stanger BZ. Detection of Circulating Pancreas Epithelial Cells in Patients With
Pancreatic Cystic Lesions, Gastroenterology 2014;146:647-651. doi pdf
Abstract: Hematogenous dissemination is thought to be a late event in cancer progression. We recently showed in a genetic model of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma that pancreas cells can be detected in the bloodstream before tumor formation. To confirm these findings in humans, we used microfluidic geometrically enhanced differential immunocapture to detect circulating pancreas epithelial cells in patient blood samples. We captured more than 3 circulating pancreas epithelial cells/mL in 7 of 21 (33%) patients with cystic lesions and no clinical diagnosis of cancer (Sendai criteria negative), 8 of 11 (73%) with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and in 0 of 19 patients without cysts or cancer (controls). These findings indicate that cancer cells are present in the circulation of patients before tumors are detected, which might be used in risk assessment.
Figures:
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- Detection of CECs in patients using GEDI. (A) Depiction of the GEDI device. (B) Vertical scatterplots of CEC concentrations (per milliliter blood) for cancer-free patients (control), patients with cystic lesions of the pancreas without dysplasia or tumor (cystic lesion), and patients with PDAC. Bars indicate statistically significant differences using the Mann–Whitney test. Representative images of individual GEDI-captured nucleated cells from (C) PI34 cells in culture, (D) control human blood spiked with PI34 cells and (E) blood from a patient with PDAC. Cells were stained for CD45 (green), Pdx-1 (red), and DNA (DAPI, blue). Scale bar: 20 micron.doi pdf