The clinical significance of the Ezrin gene and circulating tumor cells in osteosarcoma

Guang-Xian Zhong,1 Shao-Dan Feng,2 Rong-Kai Shen,1 Zhao-Yang Wu,1 Fei Chen,1 Xia Zhu1 1Department of Orthopaedics, 2Department of Emergency, The First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, People’s Republic of China Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the peripheral blood of an osteosarcoma and the Ezrin gene expressed in CTCs.Patients and methods: CTC enrichment was done with CanPatrol™ CTC enrichment technique in 41 patients with osteosarcoma. The characterization of CTCs was performed using a multiple messenger RNA in situ analysis (MRIA). The expression of the Ezrin gene in CTCs was detected by RNA probe technology. The correlations of CTC counts, cell type and the expression level of the Ezrin gene with clinical stage and metastasis of osteosarcoma were analyzed using SPSS 16.0 software.Results: The CTC counts correlated significantly with Enneking stage (P