Circulating Tumor Cell Detection in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

From 2013 to 2016, CellSearch technology was used to detect the number of circulating tumor cells (CTC) in peripheral blood of hundreds of HCC patients undergoing liver cancer surgery during perioperative period. The analysis results confirmed that the level of CTC before and after surgery were significantly correlated with overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) of patients. CTC level changed before and after surgery, but there was no statistical difference. Preoperative CTC was more correlated with patients' disease-related clinical parameters, while postoperative CTC was an independent prognostic indicator of patients after surgery. In addition, the investigators' study found that CTC clusters level can be a new marker of tumor progression in HCC patients. Based on the above data, the investigators will perform retrospective analysis to compare the relationship between CTC level and clinical indicators of HCC patients. Participants were divided into groups according to pathological type, differentiation degree, clinical stage, invasion degree, recurrence and metastasis of tumors. Combined with immunohistochemistry and quantitative PCR results, the correlation of CTC in tumor genesis, pathological model, degree of differentiation, tumor stage, invasion, metastasis and expression of other tumor markers was studied.