Circulating tumor cell analysis from stage III lung cancer patients

Imaging technologies only detect progression after it has occurred, which may be well after tumor growth or disease progression has begun. In this work, we determined whether circulating tumor cell (CTC) quantification, PD-L1 expression on CTCs, or CTC gene expression can be used as a blood-based biomarker to predict patient outcomes in stage III NSCLC. The primary endpoint was disease progression, either locoregional, distant, or death. We used immunoaffinity graphene oxide (GO) chip to isolated CTCs from stage III NSCLC patients, and extracted bulk RNA materials from isolated CTC samples and conducted microarray gene expression profiling. At three timepoints (Pre-TX, W4, W10) through treatment, blood samples from 27 stage III NSCLC patients were processed for CTC isolation and RNA analysis using the immunoaffinity graphene oxide (GO) microfluidic chip. A total of 76 samples were included in the analysis. Only one device were used for RNA analysis per patient sample.