Abstract
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in blood are accepted as a prognostic marker for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC). However, there is limited data on the use of CTCs as a prognostic marker for non-metastatic patients. In the current study, we used a rare cell automated analysis platform, the MiSelect R System, to enumerate CTCs from blood in non-metastatic CRC patients, and corelated the number of CTCs with the clinical staging and survival. The presence of CTCs in mesenteric vein blood (MVB) samples from 101 CRC patients was significantly associated with T stage. Patients with 1 or more CTCs per 8 mL of MVB exhibited significantly worse disease-free survival (DFS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) compared to patient without CTCs. The presence of CTCs before surgery is an independent marker for both DFS and CSS. CTC presence after surgical resection is also a prognostic marker. CTCs are a potentially useful prognostic and predictive biomarker in non-metastatic CRC patients that may further stratify patient's risk status within different stages of disease.