Profile of recruited patients.

Metastasis in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma has been associated with a poor prognosis. However, sensitive and reliable tests for monitoring their occurrence are unavailable, with the exception of PET-CT. Circulating tumor cells and cell-free DNA have emerged as promising biomarkers for determining treatment efficacy and as prognostic predictors in solid tumors such as breast cancer and colorectal cancer. Hence, this study aimed to determine the potential role of liquid biopsy, circulating tumor cells, and cell-free DNA as biomarkers of oral squamous cell carcinoma. Thirteen patients with primary oral squamous cell carcinoma who visited our hospital between 2022 and 2023 were recruited, and plasma samples were collected from each patient preoperatively and postoperatively. We examined the relationship between the prognosis, the number of circulating tumor cells per four milliliters of peripheral blood, and the amount of cell-free DNA per milliliter of serum or the gene mutation in cell-free DNA. We observed no correlation between the number of preoperative circulating tumor cells and metastatic events. However, the number of circulating tumor cell clusters or the amount of preoperative cell-free DNA in metastatic cases was higher than that in non-metastatic cases. In oral squamous cell carcinoma, circulating tumor cell clusters or cell-free DNA levels may help inform management decisions regarding metastasis. However, further studies are required to provide a possible window for therapeutic interventions.

口腔鳞状细胞癌（oral squamous cell carcinoma）患者发生转移往往与不良预后密切相关。然而，目前除正电子发射计算机断层显像（PET-CT）外，尚无灵敏可靠的检测方法用于监测转移发生。循环肿瘤细胞（circulating tumor cells）与无细胞DNA（cell-free DNA）已在乳腺癌、结直肠癌等实体瘤中作为评估治疗疗效的潜在生物标志物及预后预测因子崭露头角。因此，本研究旨在探讨液体活检（liquid biopsy）、循环肿瘤细胞及无细胞DNA作为口腔鳞状细胞癌生物标志物的潜在作用。本研究纳入2022至2023年间于我院就诊的13例原发性口腔鳞状细胞癌患者，于术前及术后采集每位患者的血浆样本。我们分析了患者预后、每4毫升外周血中的循环肿瘤细胞数量、每毫升血清中的无细胞DNA含量或无细胞DNA的基因突变情况三者之间的关联。研究未观察到术前循环肿瘤细胞数量与转移事件存在显著相关性。但在发生转移的患者中，其术前循环肿瘤细胞团簇数量或无细胞DNA含量均高于未发生转移的患者。在口腔鳞状细胞癌中，循环肿瘤细胞团簇或无细胞DNA水平或可为转移相关诊疗决策提供参考依据。不过，仍需开展进一步研究以明确其用于治疗干预的潜在窗口期。