ORIGINAL ARTICLE Time courses and value of circulating microparticles in patients with operable stage non-small cell lung cancer undergoing surgical intervention Chia-Cheng Tseng 1,2 & Chin-Chou Wang 1,3 & Chang-Chun Hsiao 2 & Hung-I Lu 4 & Steve Leu 5 & Huang-Chih Chang 1,2 & Kuo-Tung Huang 1,2 & Wen-Feng Fang 1 & Yu-Mu Chen 1 & Shih-Feng Liu 1 & Cheng-Ta Yang 6 & Meng-Chih Lin 1 & Hon-Kan Yip 5,7,8,9,10,11 Received: 4 December 2015 /Accepted: 1 April 2016 /Published online: 8 April 2016 # International Society of Oncology and BioMarkers (ISOBM) 2016 Abstract Microparticles (MPs) are substantially increased in patients with operable stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) prior to lung resection surgery. This study tested the hypothesis that there is a decrease in MPs after surgical intervention. Between March 2012 and January 2015, 33 patients who had operable stage NSCLC were consecutively and prospectively enrolled into the study. Additionally, 31 healthy subjects who were consecutively enrolled in the study period served as age- and gender-matched controls. Circulating MPs (EDAc-MPs, EDAp-MPs, PDAc-MPs, PDAp-MPs) were measured by flow cytometry once in control subjects and twice (i.e., prior to and three months later after surgical intervention) in NSCLC patients. Compared with control subjects, these four types of circulating MPs were significantly higher in NSCLC patients prior to operation (all P <0.005), but did not differ among the controls and NSCLC patients at 3 months after surgery (all P > 0.2). Additionally, a receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) showed that these four types of MPs were significantly valuable predictors for detecting early stage NSCLC (all P < 0.004). Circulating MPs which were remarkably increased in the operable stage of NSCLC prior to surgery were substantially decreased 3 months later after surgery. These findings show that circulating MPs might be an accessory biomarker for monitoring those of NSCLC after receiving lung resection surgery. Meng-Chih Lin and Hon-Kan Yip have equal contribution in this study compared with the correspondence author. * Hon-Kan Yip han.gung@msa.hinet.net 1 Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung 83301, Taiwan 2 Graduate Institute of Clinical Medical Sciences, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 3 Department of Public Health, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 4 Division of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 5 Center for Translational Research in Biomedical Sciences, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 6 Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Taoyuan, Taiwan 7 Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 8 Center for Shockwave Medicine and Tissue Engineering, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung 83301, Taiwan 9 Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan 10 Department of Nursing, Asia University, Taichung 41354, Taiwan 11 Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, No.123 Ta Pei Road, Niao Sung District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan Tumor Biol. (2016) 37:11873–11882 DOI 10.1007/s13277-016-5047-5