FIGURE 4.

CTC burden in very-low-risk patient HB70/110. (A) We obtained samples at 2 time points during the patient’s course of treatment. We analyzed CTC burden after processing whole blood and tagging CTCs with ICG, GPC3, and DAPI, as described. We graphed CTC burden (cells/mL) and serum AFP levels, and both show a drop, correlating with the response of the patient to therapy. AFP was assessed by standard clinical tests. CT of primary tumor directly before hepatectomy with tumor indicated by a red arrow. (B, C) Validation of GPC3⁺ and ICG⁺ primary samples from patients. (B) Histology of primary patient tumor sample showing positivity of sample for GPC3. The scale bar represents 50 μm. (C) Near-infrared imaging of ICG⁺ primary tumor during hepatectomy. (D) Image of ICG⁺/GPC3⁺/DAPI⁺ CTC from Amnis ImageStream instrument. Abbreviations: AFP, alpha-fetoprotein; CTC, circulating tumor cell; GPC3, Glypican-3; ICG, indocyanine green.