Abstract:Objective To investigate the relationship between circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and clinical characteristics and prognosis of elderly patients with esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma (AEG) by detecting CTCs in their peripheral blood. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 95 elderly AEG patients at Liaocheng People's Hospital from August 2016 to May 2020. Negative enrichment-immuno fluorescence in situ hybridization (NE-FISH) was used to detect CTCs one week before treatment. The relationship between positive CTCs count and clinical characteristics of patients was analyzed. Progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of elderly AEG patients were obtained through follow-up, and survival analysis was performed using Kaplan-Meier method. Cox regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship between CTCs count and prognostic indicators (PFS, OS) in elderly AEG patients. Results The positive rate of CTCs (≥2) in 95 elderly AEG patients was 72.6% (69/95). The positivity of CTCs in elderly AEG patients was closely related to TNM pathological staging, T staging, lymph node metastasis, and surgery (P＜0.05). Kaplan Meier survival analysis showed that, compared with the CTCs＜2 group, the median PFS (12 months vs 50 months) and median OS (20 months vs 50 months) of elderly AEG patients in the CTCs≥2 group were shorter and the differences were statistically significant (P＜0.01). Conclusion The use of NE-FISH technology for peripheral blood CTCs detection in elderly AEG patients is feasible. Positive CTCs are closely related to tumor metastasis and disease progression in elderly AEG patients, and CTCs≥2 may be an indicator of poor prognosis in elderly AEG patients.