Abstract:
Objective To provide clinical evidence of the detection of exfoliated cancer cells(ECC) from peritoneal washing fluids of gastric carcinoma patients using flow cytometry(FCM) as an assisting approach.
Methods Peritoneal washings and related clinical data from 62 patients with gastric cancer were collected.FCM was used to carry out DNA ploidy analysis of ECC, whereas traditional peritoneal lavage cytology(PLC) was used to compare the sensitivity of the two methods.The correlation between FCM results and the clinicopathologic features of gastric cancer was analyzed.
Results The positive rate of 62 cancer patients was 67.74%and 33.87%in the FCM and PLC groups, respectively.Significant differences were observed between the two groups(P < 0.001).FCM was correlated with tumor type(P = 0.013), infiltration depth(P = 0.018), area of serous invasion(P = 0.048), nodal metastasis(P = 0.001), vascular tumor embolus(P = 0.048), and clinicopathologic staging based on the tumor, nodes, and metastasis classification (TNM staging)(P = 0.002).FCM was superior to PLC in localizing gastric cancer(P = 0.003), infiltration depth(P < 0.01), invasion area of peritoneum below 10 cm2(P = 0.001), lymph node metastasis(P = 0.001), vessel tumor embolus negative(P = 0.001), and TNM staging(P < 0.05).
Conclusion FCM can be used as an effective method to detect ECC during surgery and to assist in the diagnosis of gastric cancer.