Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells in Peripheral Blood of Patients with Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20791190
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Otorhinolaryngology
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: TOMIYAMA Youichiro Osaka University, 医学系研究科, 助教 (20437320)
• Project Period (FY): 2008 – 2009
• Keywords: 頭頸部扁平上皮癌 / 循環腫瘍細胞 / サイトケラチン / SCC抗原

Research Abstract

Discrimination of high risk patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who result in having distant metastasis is essential for the improvement of their prognosis. We therefore tried to establish a new method to distinguish such high risk patients from the others using quantitative analysis of circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Preliminary examination using established head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells diluted with normal blood revealed that it is possible to quantify the tumor cells. We analyzed the circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who underwent the first line treatment in our institution, just before and after the treatment. Unfortunately, however, tumor cells were not detected as expected. Further investigation will be needed.