Table 10. Baseline clinical characteristics and correlation analysis of CTCs in patients with metastatic cancer (n=70).

Characteristic	Value	Correlation coefficient	P
Gender		0.782	0.07
Male	21 (30.00)
Female	49 (70.00)
Age (year)	48.83±12.37	0.606	0.20
Underlying diseases
Hypertension	7 (10.00)	−0.027	0.78
Diabetes	12 (17.14)	−0.031	0.76
Coronary heart disease	4 (5.71)	0.136	0.16
Active smoker	22 (31.43)	−0.019	0.85
Radiological features
Tumor size (mm)	26.87±17.55	0.187	0.06
Tumor lobation	2 (2.86)	0.024	0.81
Air bronchogram	3 (4.29)	0.126	0.12
Location
RUL	28 (40.00)	0.106	0.28
RML	4 (5.71)	0.145	0.65
RLL	13 (18.57)	0.014	0.89
LUL	10 (14.29)	0.142	0.15
LLL	15 (21.43)	0.124	0.20
Density (HU)	−234.25±350.29	−0.056	0.57
Spiculated margin	23 (32.86)	−0.076	0.43
Vacuole sign	6 (8.57)	−0.088	0.37
Pleural indentation	12 (17.14)	0.041	0.68
Necrosis	8 (11.43)	−0.001	>0.99
Vascular wall invasion	5 (7.14)	−0.134	0.17
Pleural infiltration	4 (5.71)	−0.121	0.22
Perineural invasion	3 (4.29)	−0.117	0.23
Intravascular tumor thrombus	1 (1.43)	−0.018	0.96
Positive incision margin	0.000	–	–
Positive lymph node	9 (12.86)	0.829	0.02
Genetic mutation
EGFR-mutated	8 (11.43)	−0.018	0.87
ALK-mutated	5 (7.14)	−0.092	0.35
ROS1-mutated	0.000	−0.032	0.74
KRAS-mutated	3 (4.29)	−0.068	0.49
BRAF-mutated	6 (8.57)	−0.094	0.33

Data are presented as n (%), or mean ± standard deviation. CTC, circulating tumor cell; LUAD, lung adenocarcinoma; RUL, right upper lobe; RML, right middle lobe; RLL, right lower lobe; LUL, left upper lobe; LLL, left lower lobe; HU, Hounsfield unit; EGFR, epidermal growth factor receptor; ALK, anaplastic lymphoma kinase; ROS1, ROS proto-oncogene 1, receptor tyrosine kinase; KRAS, Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog; BRAF, v-Raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B.