Author(s)

Panagiotis Apostolou, Maria Papadimitriou, Ioannis Papasotiriou^*

Research Genetic Cancer Centre S.A., Industrial Area of Florina, Florina, Greece.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are a population of tumor-derived cells that detach from the primary tumor and initiate metastasis. However, the mechanisms of this process are still unknown. This phenomenon renders CTCs as a valuable resource for prognosis and diagnosis of cancer. The involvement of stemness transcription factors and markers, such as NANOG, OCT3/4, CD34, NESTIN, and SOX2, in metastasis initiation has been studied recently because their abnormally elevated expression in cancer cells may be highly important in understanding tumor initiation. This study analyzed the genetic profiles of the above genes in CTCs derived from patients with different types of cancer. Blood samples were randomly collected from 71 cancer patients with various cancer types. CTCs were isolated using enrichment protocols and RNA was extracted. RT-qPCR was performed in triplicate using ACTB as the reference gene. The statistical analysis was performed among the ΔCts of the samples using parametric and non-parametric methods. The molecular analysis revealed that the expression of each gene was different than the others. When each type of cancer was analyzed separately, the gene expression profile was not always the same. It is noteworthy that, in all cases, the gene expression of NESTIN differed from that of transcription factors. According to the above data, gene expression profiles might be used as a potential biomarker or constitute a gene signature.

Stemness, Circulating Tumor Cells, RT-qPCR

Apostolou, P. , Papadimitriou, M. and Papasotiriou, I. (2017) Stemness Gene Profiles of Circulating Tumor Cells. Journal of Cancer Therapy, 8, 155-167. doi: 10.4236/jct.2017.82013.