Evaluation of Prognostic Significance of Circulating Tumor Cells Detection in Rectal Cancer Patients Treated with Preoperative Radiotherapy: Prospectively Collected Material Data

Table 2

Correlation of circulating tumor cells (CTC) detection in peripheral blood with clinicopathological factors and disease recurrence in patients with a radical resection of primary rectal cancer after preoperative radiotherapy.

	Total patients; 𝑛=91	Preoperative		24 hours after		7 days after
		CTC (+); 𝑛=39	𝑃 value	CTC (+); 𝑛=11	𝑃 value	CTC (+); 𝑛=12	𝑃 value
pN0	50	20 (51%)	0.54	3 (27%)	0.049	8 (67%)	0.38
pN1-2	41	19 (49%)		8 (73%)		4 (33%)
pT0–2	29	11 (28%)	0.52	1 (9%)	0.08	5 (42%)	0.43
pT3-4	62	28 (72%)		10 (91%)		7 (58%)
TNM I	23	8 (20%)	0.63	0	0.07	3 (25%)	0.54
TNM II	26	12 (31%)		3 (27%)		5 (42%)
TNM III	41	19 (49%)		8 (73%)		4 (33%)
Cancer recurrence	17	7 (18%)	0.88	2 (18%)	0.88	3 (25%)	0.55
Local recurrence	6	3 (8%)	0.71	1 (9%)	0.72	3 (25%)	0.006
Metastasis	14	6 (15%)	1.00	2 (18%)	0.78	1 (8%)	0.47
Cancer related death	8	4 (10%)	0.67	1 (9%)	0.97	0	0.25

CTC (+): number of patients with circulating tumor cells; pN: lymph nodes metastasis; pT: depth of tumor invasion.