Folate-Receptor Positive Circulating Tumor Cell Is a Potential Diagnostic Marker of Prostate Cancer

Folate-receptor positive circulating tumor cells (FR+CTCs) shows an important role in the diagnosis and dynamic monitoring for many solid tumors; however, the application of FR+CTCs in prostate cancer remains unclear. We explored the potential application of FR+CTCs in this retrospective study. The levels of FR+CTCs were detected in 30 prostate cancer patients and 7 bladder cancer patients in Peking University Cancer Hospital from August 2017 to August 2021. Clinical and pathology data were collected. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the difference in FR+CTCs levels in patients with prostate cancer, bladder cancer, and benign disease. The area under the receiver operating curve (AUROC) was used to compare the accuracy of FR+CTCs and tPSA in the diagnosis of prostate cancer. We found that levels of FR+CTCs were significantly higher in cancer patients (both prostate and bladder cancer) than in patients with benign urinary disease (p < 0.001). Besides, FR+CTCs level was consistently high in the prostate cancer patients with different tPSA levels (p < 0.001), and it was significantly higher in the patients with f/tPSA levels 0.16 (12.20 +/- 1.31 vs. 8.73 +/- 0.92 FU/3 ml, p = 0.043). The diagnosis efficiency of FR+CTCs is better than the tPSA in prostate cancer patients with tPSA <10 ng/ml (0.871 vs. 0.857). In the prostate cancer patients with tPSA <10 ng/ml and f/tPSA <0.16, a combination of FR+CTCs and tPSA (AUROC, 0.934) further increased the diagnosis efficiency of each of these biomarkers alone (FR+CTCs, 0.912; tPSA, 0.857). Therefore, FR+CTCs could serve as an early diagnosis marker in the prostate cancer patients with uncertain tPSA levels.

Automated summary

FR+CTCs levels were significantly higher in both prostate and bladder cancer patients compared to those with benign urinary diseases, showing potential as an early diagnostic marker for prostate cancer. The combination of FR+CTCs and tPSA could further increase the diagnostic efficiency in prostate cancer patients with tPSA levels <10 ng/ml and f/tPSA levels <0.16.