Table 1. Clinical characteristics of patients in the two study cohorts.
Sample type | Total no. of patients | Age mean ± S.D. (range) | Pathologic stage | No. of patients with lymph node involvement | No. of patients with metastasis | Histological grade | ER | PR | |||||
Early* | Late** | 1 | 2 | 3 | Positive | Negative | Positive | Negative | |||||
Plasma samples | 36 | 67±13.4 (38–89) | 27 | 9 | 19 | 0 | 11 | 18 | 7 | 28 | 8 | 23 | 13 |
Triple samples | 20 | 50±11.7 (33–77) | 12 | 8 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 15 | 16 | 4 | 10 | 10 |
*The pathologic stage<III was considered as “Early stage”.
**The pathologic stage III and IV was considered as “Late stage”.
ER: Estrogen receptor; PR: Progesterone receptor.