The size and incidence of subcutaneous tumors were recorded every week. These procedures were approved by The Animal Care and

Use Committee of Fudan University. The cutoff value used in prognosis was estimated using X-tile 3.6.1 software (Yale University, New Haven, CT).21 The results indicated that in blood, a threshold CTC7.5 value of 2 showed the most significant power selleckchem to predict patient outcome (Supporting Fig. 1); therefore, it was used in all further analyses. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis confirmed that this level was the optimal cutoff. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS version 19.0 for Windows (IBM). Data are presented as the mean ± SEM. A chi-squared test, Fisher’s exact test, and Student t test were used for comparison between groups where appropriate.

The relationship between the TTR and CTC counts was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier survival curves and a selleck kinase inhibitor log-rank test. Univariate and multivariate analyses were based on the Cox proportional hazard regression model. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. ROC curve analysis was used to determine the predictive value of the parameters, and the differences in the area under the curve (AUC) were detected using Stata version 10 (StataCorp, College Station, TX). The mRNA levels of four putative hepatic CSC biomarkers (EpCAM, CD133, CD90, and ABCG2) were determined via qRT-PCR analysis in CD45-depleted peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 30 HCC patients and 20 healthy volunteers. The expression of EpCAM was significantly higher in cells of HCC patients versus healthy controls (P < 0.05), whereas there was no significant difference in the expression of CD133, CD90, or ABCG2 between the groups (P > 0.05) (Fig. 1A). These data suggested that EpCAM might be a reliable biomarker to identify circulating CSCs in HCC. Because the mRNA level of EpCAM was highly expressed MCE公司 in CD45-depleted peripheral blood mononuclear cells of HCC patients, we investigated the prevalence of EpCAM+ CTCs in HCC patients

using the CellSearch system. CTCs detected with the CellSearch system were defined as nucleated intact cells that were positive for cytokeratins and negative for CD45 (Fig. 1B).8 Apoptotic CTCs, defined as CTCs with fragmented, condensed 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI)-stained nuclear,22 were also enumerated and examples were shown in Fig. 1B. The apoptotic cells were excluded from the CTC counts and recorded separately. Preoperatively, EpCAM+ CTCs were detected in 82 of 123 HCC patients at CTC7.5 levels within a range of 1-34, and 51 patients had counts of ≥2. No CTCs were detected in 41 HCC patients or in any of the blood samples derived from healthy volunteers or patients with benign liver disease.