| Objective: Several studies have paid attention to the relationship between circulating tumor cells(CTCs) and tumor clinicopathological characteristics in colorectal cancer(CRC), however, the results are of conflict. We performed a meta-analysis to systematically assess the potential association.Method: In Pub Med/MEDLINE and EMBASE databases, we searched the studies which evaluated the relationships between CTCs and tumor clinicopathological characteristics of patients with CRC. The included studies were obtained using the criteria of search strategies, in which necessary information were retrieved. A meta-analysis was performed to determine the associations of CTCs with clinicopathloogical characteristics in CRC patients. All analyses were performed with STATA 11.0. For all genotypes and alleles, odds ratio(OR) were pooled with 95% confidence interval(CI). Statistical heterogeneity of the data was quantitated using the χ2-based Cochran’s Q statistic and I2 statistic together.Results: A total of 13 qualified articles within 1263 CRC patients were finally included. Our meta-analysis manifested that the detection of CTCs in the peripheral blood(PB) was significantly related with p T category [OR= 2.06,95%CI(1.24,3.44), n=4, P=0.006, fixed effect model], distant metastases [OR= 2.96, 95%CI(1.72, 5.11), n = 6, P < 0.001, fixed effect model] and TNM stage[OR= 1.66, 95%CI(1.23, 2.24), n = 8, P = 0.001, fixed effect model]. Moreover, there were no statistically significant relationships between the CTCs and gender(male or female), tumor size(>5 or ≦ 5cm), differentiation(low or middle/high), location(colon or rectum) and lymphatic invasion(positive or negative) [OR=0.77, 95%CI(0.48-1.23); OR=6.90, 95%CI(0.36-130.97); OR=1.11, 95%CI(0.73-1.68);OR=1.19,95%CI(0.74-1.93);OR=1.24,95%CI(0.69-2.20)].Conclusions: Our meta-analysis indicated that the presence of CTCs in PB was associated with tumor clinicopathological characteristics in CRC patients, such as p T category, distant metastases and TNM stage. The detection of CTCs might serve as an efficient and predictive biomarker for CRC patients, and could be a new molecular target in CRC therapy. |
