Abstract
BACKGROUND: Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are crucial for improving our knowledge regarding tumor progress, prognosis, and recurrence possibility. AIM: To evaluate the role of CTCs in the early diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer. METHODS: From June 2020 to December 2021, a randomized study was conducted in our institution involving 80 patients scheduled for surgery for gastric cancer. The patients were divided into two groups: A control group that was tested for traditional serum markers and a study group that was assessed for serum CTCs. RESULTS: In the study cohort, CTC levels did not correlate significantly with patient age, gender, or degree of tumor differentiation (P > 0.05). However, there was a significant correlation with the tumor-node-metastasis stage of the tumor (P < 0.05). In the study group, the CTC diagnostic positivity rate was 62.50% (25 out of 40 patients), while the positivity rate for conventional serum markers in the control group was 47.50% (19 out of 40 patients). The positive detection rate in the study group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: CTCs have slight invasion and high sensitivity and specificity, presenting great value for early clinical diagnosis of recurrence and metastasis. It will improve the deceleration of disease development and increase the survival rate.