Relationship between ERCC1 expression of circulating tumor cell and sensitivity to platinum in patients with ovarian cancer

Objective To study the relationship between the expression of excision repair cross complementation group 1 (ERCC1)in circulating tumor cell (CTC) in peripheral blood of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) and the sensitivity to platinum. Methods A total of 60 EOC patients in Chinese PLA General Hospital from March 2015 to June 2016 were enrolled. Peripheral blood of patients was collected before postoperative chemotherapy and within a week after the three courses of chemotherapy(carboplatin/paclitaxel). The Nanofiltration membrane and RNA in situ hybridization technique was used to separate and detect the CTC and ERCC1-positive CTC. The relationship between ERCC1-positive CTC and the sensitivity to platinum was analyzed. Results Of the 60 cases, CTC was observed in 50 cases (83.3%) and ERCC1-positive CTC in 36 cases (60%). According to the quantitative change of ERCC1 + CTC before and after chemotherapy, the 36 patients were divided into elevated ERCC1 + CTC group (ERCC1 + CTC-H group, 12 cases) and non-elevated ERCC1 + CTC group (ERCC1 + CTC-L group, 24 cases). No significant difference was between the two groups in age, family history, histology, ascites, ascites cytology, residual tumor, FIGO stage (P> 0.05). There were 15 cases (62.5%) in ERCC1 + CTC-L group and 2 cases (16.7%) in ERCC1 + CTC-H group were sensitive to platinum, with statistically significant difference between the two groups (P< 0.05). Conclusion The ERCC1 expression of CTC can predict the sensitivity to platinum.