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Sawabata et al. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2017;3:16-20 Journal of
DOI: 10.20517/2394-4722.2016.67
Cancer Metastasis and Treatment

www.jcmtjournal.com
Topic: Circulating Tumor Cells: Diagnostics and Clinical Applications Open Access

Lung cancer biopsy dislodges tumor cells

into circulating blood

Noriyoshi Sawabata, Tomotaka Kitamura, Yuko Nitta, Tomoyo Taketa, Takeshi Ohno, Tatsuya Fukumori,
Takeru Hyakutake, Takahito Nakamura
Division of General Thoracic Surgery, Respiratory Center, Hoshigaoka Medical Center, Hirakata, Osaka 574-8511, Japan.

Correspondence to: Dr. Noriyoshi Sawabata, Division of General Thoracic Surgery, Respiratory Center, Hoshigaoka Medical Center, 4-8-1
Hoshigaoka, Hirakata, Osaka 574-8511, Japan. E-mail: nsawabata@hotmail.com

How to cite this article: Sawabata N, Kitamura T, Nitta Y, Taketa T, Ohno T, Fukumori T, Hyakutake T, Nakamura T. Lung cancer biopsy dislodges
tumor cells into circulating blood. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2017;3:16-20.
ABSTRACT
Article history: Aim: A “seed” of lung cancer metastasis is circulating tumor cells (CTCs), which may be
Received: 15-11-2016 dislodged from a tumor during biopsy. This possibility was assessed among patients who
Accepted: 12-01-2017 underwent lung tumor biopsy using flexible fiber-topic bronchoscopy (FFB). Methods:
Published: 23-01-2017 The study involved six patients with non-small cell lung cancer who underwent FFB
biopsy to diagnose a lesion pathologically (5 males and 1 female, median age 63 years, 6
Key words: adenocarcinomas, of 4 clinical-stage IA, 1 stage IB, and 1 stage IIIA), CTCs were extracted
Lung cancer, from the peripheral vein blood at pre-FFB and at post-FFB using a size selection method.
biopsy, Results: No tumor cell was detected at pre- and post-FFB was in three cases (50%); no
circulating tumor cells tumor cells were detected pre-FFB while CTCs were detected at post-FFB in two cases
(33.3%); and CTCs were detected at pre-FFB with numerous CTCs detected at post-FFB in
one case (17.7%). In addition, similar tendencies were observed in each analysis of single-
cell and clustered-cell categories. Conclusion: These results suggest that a FFB biopsy of
lung cancer may potentially dislodge CTCs from a tumor into the circulating peripheral
blood.
INTRODUCTION cells through the needle tract. According to a study
[2]
using extracted human lung lobe with cancer lesions,
There are three principal methods to diagnose a cancer cells were detected at a rate of 10% in the saline
pulmonary lung cancer region pathologically. One used to wash the pulmonary lobe surface. This rate
is trans-bronchial biopsy (TBB) using flexible fiber- increased to 60% after FNAC. In a clinical setting.
[2]
topic bronchoscopy (FFB) and others are computed it has been reported that the rate of relapse (pleural
tomography (CT), guided fine needle aspiration biopsy recurrence) was higher in an FNAC group than in a
(FNAC), and surgical resection. Each method is control group among surgical lung cancer cases. [3,4]
[1]
effective but has some weak points. In addition, there has been a recommendation use
caution in employing FNAC as a method of lung cancer
First, FNAC has the potential to disseminate cancer diagnosis based on evidence. [5]

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