Baseline CD44v6-positive circulating tumor cells to predict first-line treatment failure in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer
Chiara Nicolazzo, Flavia Loreni, S Caponnetto, Valentina Magri, Anna Rita Vestri, Rita Zamarchi, Angela Gradilone, Antonella Facchinetti, Elisabetta Rossi, Enrico Cortesi, Paola Gazzaniga
Abstract
// Chiara Nicolazzo 1 , Flavia Loreni 1 , Salvatore Caponnetto 2 , Valentina Magri 2 , Anna Rita Vestri 3 , Rita Zamarchi 4 , Angela Gradilone 1 , Antonella Facchinetti 4 , 5 , Elisabetta Rossi 4 , 5 , Enrico Cortesi 2 and Paola Gazzaniga 1 1 Department of Molecular Medicine, Liquid Biopsy Unit, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy 2 Department of Radiological, Oncological and Pathological Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy 3 Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy 4 Veneto Institute of Oncology IOV-IRCCS, Padua, Italy 5 Department of Surgery, Oncology and Gastroenterology, University of Padova, Italy Correspondence to: Chiara Nicolazzo, email: [email protected] Keywords: cancer stem cells; CD44v6; circulating tumor cells; colorectal cancer; CellSearch ® Received: July 22, 2020     Accepted: October 17, 2020     Published: November 10, 2020 Copyright: © 2020 Nicolazzo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. ABSTRACT CD44v6, the CD44 isoform mostly involved in cancer cell migration and invasion, has been identified as a functional biomarker and therapeutic target in colon cancer stem cells. We here provide evidence that baseline CD44v6-positive CTC predict treatment failure in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer undergoing first-line chemotherapy. We suggest that CD44v6-positive CTC can be used to early detect intrinsic drug resistance in this cancer type.