Detection of Circulating Tumour Cells in Urothelial Cancers and Clinical Correlations: Comparison of Two Methods

Table 1

Clinical and demographic characteristics for the four study groups (MIBC, metastatic patients submitted to first-line and second-line therapy and healthy donors).

Variable	Group
	Newly diagnosed, receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy; (19 cases)	Metastatic, receiving 1st-line chemotherapy; (33 cases)	Metastatic, receiving 2nd-line therapy; (14 cases)	Healthy donors; (39 cases)
Sex
Female	4 (21.1%)	10 (30.3%)	1 (7.1%)	17 (43.6%)
Male	15 (78.9%)	23 (69.7%)	13 (92.9%)	22 (56.4%)
Age
<65	16 (84.2%)	14 (42.4%)	6 (42.9%)	39 (100%)
≥65	3 (15.8%)	19 (57.6%)	8 (57.1%)	0
Primary tumour site
Bladder	19 (100%)	28 (84.8%)	11 (78.6%)	—
Upper tract	0	5 (15.2%)	3 (21.4%)	—
Metastatic sites
Lymph-nodes		22 (66.7%)	12 (85.7%)	—
Liver-lung-bone		13 (39.4%)	9 (64.3%)	—
		5 (15.2%)	1 (7.1%)	—
Histology
Pure TCC	2 (10.5%)	24 (72.7%)	13 (92.9%)	—
	17 (89.5%)	7 (21.2%)	1 (7.1%)	—
Smoking
Never smoker	8 (42.1%)	9 (27.3%)	2 (14.3%)	9 (23.1%)
Former smoker	7 (36.8%)	12 (36.4%)	3 (21.4%)	5 (12.8%)
Current smoker	4 (21.1%)	10 (30.3%)	3 (21.4%)	25 (64.1%)

MIBC: muscle-invasive bladder cancer; TCC: transitional cell carcinoma.
, bladder.
+ sarcomatoid, small cell differentiation, squamous cell.
data in 2 out of 33 cases.