Table 1. Relations of positive rates by the three CTC detection techniques with clinicopathological variables and other molecular markers in blood.

	All patients		CellSearch CTC test			AdnaTest			RT–PCR for CK-19			RT–PCR for mammaglobin			RT–PCR CK-19 and/or mammaglobin
Characteristic	N	%	N	%	P	N	%	P	N	%	P	N	%	P	N	%	P
ER
Positive	51	71	21	81	0.20	15	94	0.02	15	75	0.63	29	74	0.47	33	73	0.55
Negative	21	29	5	19		1	6		5	25		10	26		12	27
PR
Positive	37	53	13	52	0.84	9	60	0.53	9	47	0.57	21	57	0.49	23	53	0.89
Negative	33	47	12	48		6	40		10	53		16	43		20	47
HER2
Positive	25	33	7	26	0.36	3	19	0.17	4	20	0.14	13	32	0.74	14	30	0.40
Negative	50	67	20	74		13	81		16	80		28	68		33	70
P53
Positive	18	37	6	35	0.89	3	25	0.39	8	53	0.11	10	36	0.86	13	39	0.58
Negative	31	63	11	65		9	75		7	47		18	64		20	61
Disease status
Progressive	46	63	22	81	0.02	12	75	0.22	15	75	0.19	25	64	0.84	30	67	0.41
Non-progressive	27	37	5	19		4	25		5	25		14	36		15	33
CA15.3 levels a
High (⩾109 U/ml)	34	51	22	85	<0.001	14	87	0.001	15	823	0.001	20	54	0.55	24	56	0.27
Low (<109 U/ml)	33	49	4	15		2	13		3	17		17	46		19	44

Abbreviations: CTC=circulating tumour cell; ER=oestrogen receptor; PR=progesterone receptor; RT–PCR=reverse transcription–PCR.

Statistically relevant relations are presented in bold.

^aSerum CA15.3 levels were dichotomised according to the median level in the breast cancer population.