The relationship between circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood and clinical characteristics of pediatric neuroblastoma and prognostic evaluation

This study investigates the correlation between circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in peripheral blood and the clinical characteristics and prognosis of advanced pediatric neuroblastoma (NB). We conducted a retrospective analysis of 144 children with advanced NB who underwent comprehensive treatment. Detailed clinical data were collected, and CTCs were detected using a negative enrichment method combined with immunofluorescence technology. Prognostic evaluation criteria and cutoff values for CTCs were established using ROC curve analysis. Univariate and Cox multivariate regression analyses identified independent risk factors impacting prognosis. Patients were categorized into high and low-expression groups based on optimal cutoff values determined with X-tile software. The high expression group had a significantly higher incidence of disease progression (<i>p</i> < 0.001), maximum tumor diameter ≥10 cm (<i>p</i> = 0.004), undifferentiated subtype (<i>p</i> = 0.034), and stage IV disease (<i>p</i> = 0.007) compared to the low expression group. CTCs were notably higher in patients with progression compared to those with mitigation (<i>p</i> < 0.001), in those with maximum tumor diameter ≥10 cm compared to <10 cm (<i>p</i> < 0.001), and in stage IV compared to stage III patients (<i>p</i> = 0.036). The AUC values for maximum tumor diameter, degree of differentiation, and tumor stage were 0.703, 0.669, 0.574, and 0.598, respectively. The detection of CTCs provides significant insights into the clinical characteristics and prognosis of advanced pediatric NB, highlighting its potential as a prognostic tool.