Fig. 4.

IF evaluation results. A Representative images of CK+, EpCAM +/- CTCs and CTCs clusters identified in MBC patients and HV subjects (CKs-AF488) in green, EpCAM-AF555 in orange, Blood lineage markers (APC) in red, Nucleus (DAPI) in blue). B Dot plot shows median ± 95% CI of the number of CTCs identified in each MBC and HV donor by IF. A statistically higher number of CTCs was found in MBC patients compared to HVs (p≥0.001, Median test). C Table shows number of donors included in each cohort (N), range, median and average number of CTCs identified within each cohort, and, using CTC thresholds of 0, ≥1, ≥2, ≥3, ≥4, ≥5 and ≥10 CTCs identified, the number and percentage of donors within each CTC category along with Wilson 95% CI’s for each proportion. The Fisher’s exact test p-values shown are for the comparison of the proportions of HV subjects and MBC patients with less than vs. greater than or equal to varying numbers of CTCs observed on the IF slides, and in each instance, a significantly higher proportion of MBC patients were CTC positive compared to the HV subjects