Table 2 Correlation between breast cancer patient staging and number of EpCAM-positive cells trapped in bone marrow aspirates
2002 AJCC stages | Patient classification based on IM EpCAM-positive cell numbers | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|  | Group A (cells ≥ 150) | Group B (50 < cells < 150) | Group C (cells < 50) | Total patients | IM-positive cells (mean ± SD) | IM-positive cells (median) |
Stages I and IIA | 1 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 84 ± 74 | 72 |
Stages IIIA–C and IV | 14 | 8 | 0 | 22 | 192 ± 100 | 176 |
Total patients | 15 | 12 | 5 | 32 | Â | Â |
IM-positive cells (mean ± SD) | 243 ± 85 | 110 ± 27 | 22 ± 17 |  |  |  |
IM-positive cells (median) | 216 | 104 | 17 | Â | Â | Â |