Circulating tumor cells as prognostic and predictive markers in metastatic breast cancer patients receiving first-line systemic treatment

Table 1 Patient characteristics stratified by baseline circulating tumor cell value

Variable	Overall	CTC < 5	CTC ≥ 5	Pvalue
All patients	235 (100)	141 (60)	94 (40)	-
Age (years)	53 (23 to 82)	53 (28 to 82)	53 (23 to 81)	0.451
Follow-up (months)	18 (1 to 65)	20 (1 to 65)	18 (3 to 61)	-
HR⁺/HER-2 normal	130 (55.3)	74 (52.5)	56 (59.6)	0.349
HR⁺/HER-2 overexpressed/amplified	21 (8.9)	15 (10.6)	6 (6.4)	0.352
HR^-/HER-2 overexpressed/amplified	22 (9.4)	13 (9.2)	9 (9.6)	1.0
Triple receptor negative	62 (26.4)	39 (27.7)	23 (24.4)	0.651
Visceral metastases	140 (59.6)	80 (56.7)	60 (63.8)	0.342
Number of metastatic sites
1	85 (36.2)	61 (43.3)	24 (25.5)	0.011*
2	65 (27.6)	38 (26.9)	27 (28.8)
≥ 3	85 (36.2)	42 (29.8)	43 (45.7)

Data presented as n (%) or median (range). CTC, circulating tumor cell; HER-2, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2; HR⁺, estrogen receptor-positive and/or progesterone receptor-positive; HR^-, both estrogen receptor-negative and progesterone receptor-negative. * Statistical significant value.

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