Investigating the role of circulating tumor cells in gastric cancer: a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis

AbstractInvestigating the role of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and their characteristics is still controversial in patients with gastric cancer (GC). Therefore, in this study, to provide a comprehensive review and meta-analyses of the literature on association of CTCs with gastric cancer, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, and Medline were searched for systematic reviews and meta-analyses conducted during February 2022 using the keywords. Risk of bias, hazard ratios (HRs), and risk differences (RD) were assessed. Forty-five studies containing 3,342 GC patients from nine countries were assessed. The overall prevalence of CTC in GC was 69.37% (60.27, 77.78). The pooled result showed that increased mortality in GC patients was significantly associated with positive CTCs, poor overall survival (HR  = 2.73, 95%CI 2.34–3.24,p <  0.001), and progression-free survival rate (HR = 2.78, 95%CI 2.01–3.85,p <  0.001). Subgroup analyses regarding markers, detection methods, treatment type, presence of distance metastasis, presence of lymph node metastasis, and overall risk of bias showed significant associations between the groups in terms of the incidence rates of CTCs, OS, and PFS. In addition, the re sults of risk differences based on sampling time showed that the use of the cell search method (RD: − 0.19, 95%CI (− 0.28, − 0.10),p <  0.001), epithelial marker (RD: − 0.12, 95%CI (− 0.25, 0.00),p 0.05) and mesenchymal markers (RD: ...
Source: Clinical and Experimental Medicine - Category: Research Source Type: research