Using the New CellCollector to Capture Circulating Tumor Cells from Blood in Different Groups of Pulmonary Disease: A Cohort Study

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are promising biomarkers for clinical application. Cancer screening with Low-Dose Computed Tomography (LDCT) and CTC detections in pulmonary nodule patients has never been reported. The aim of this study was to explore the effectiveness of the combined methods to screen lung cancer. Out of 8313 volunteers screened by LDCT, 32 ground-glass nodules (GGNs) patients and 19 healthy volunteers were randomly selected. Meanwhile, 15 lung cancer patients also enrolled. CellCollector, a new CTC capturing device, was applied for CTCs detection. In GGNs group, five CTC positive patients with six CTCs were identified, 15.6% were positive (range, 1–2). In lung cancer group, 73.3% of the analyzed CellCollector cells were positive (range, 1–7) and no “CTC-like” events were detected in healthy group. All CTCs detected from GGNs group were isolated from the CellCollector functional domain and determined by whole genomic amplification for next-generation sequencing(NGS) analysis. NGS data showed that three cancer-related genes contained mutations in five CTC positive patients, including KIT, SMARCB1 and TP53 genes. In four patients, 16 mutation genes existed. Therefore, LDCT combined with CTC analysis by an in vivo device in high-risk pulmonary nodule patients was a promising way to screen early stage lung cancer.