Abstract A032: Clinical significance of vimentin-positive AXL-expressing circulating tumor cells in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer patients

Purpose: Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have a potential for the noninvasive decision-making. AXL, a receptor tyrosine kinase is associated with promoting cell proliferation, migration, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and drug resistance. We previously reported that the establishment of the detection method of AXL-expressing CTCs by an automated microcavity array (MCA) system incorporating mesenchymal marker vimentin (VM). Here we analyzed the clinicopathological correlation with VM-positive AXL-expressing CTCs in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Methods: For detecting CTCs, 6 mL of peripheral blood collected from patients was divided into two portions and used for CTC identification in parallel incorporating markers cytokeratin (CK) and VM, respectively. An automated MCA system was used for enrichment and staining for CD45, DAPI, CK or VM with the additional staining for AXL. DAPI-positive, CK or VM-positive, and CD45-negative cells were defined as CTCs. All statistical analyses were carried out using GraphPad Prism 6 and Mann-Whitney U test, Fisher’s exact test, and rog-rank test were performed accordingly. A p value Citation Format: Mio Ikeda, Yasuhiro Koh, Shunsuke Teraoka, Koichi Sato, Kuninobu Kanai, Atsushi Hayata, Nahomi Tokudome, Hiroaki Akamatsu, Yuichi Ozawa, Keiichiro Akamatsu, Katsuya Endo, Masayuki Higuchi, Masanori Nakanishi, Hiroki Ueda, Nobuyuki Yamamoto. Clinical significance of vimentin-positive AXL-expressing circulating tumor cells in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer patients [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2019 Oct 26-30; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2019;18(12 Suppl):Abstract nr A032. doi:10.1158/1535-7163.TARG-19-A032