Table 3. Incidence of relapses and overall and breast cancer-related deaths in early breast cancer patients, in total and according to CTC status at diagnosis.
| Patients (n) | Total (%), n=82 | CTC- negative (within group %), n=66 | CTC- positive (within group %), n=16 | P-value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relapse of disease | ||||
| No | 70 (85) | 60 (91) | 10 (63) | 0.010 |
| Yes | 12 (15) | 6 (9) | 6 (38) | |
| Overall survival | ||||
| Alive | 74 (90) | 59 (89) | 15 (94) | 1.000 |
| Death | 8 (10) | 7 (11) | 1 (6) | |
| Breast cancer-related survival | ||||
| Alive | 74 (90) | 59 (89) | 15 (94) | 0.686 |
| Death, breast cancer related | 5 (6) | 4 (6) | 1 (6) | |
| Death, other cause | 3 (4) | 3 (5) | 0 (0) | |
Abbreviation: CTC-positive or CTC-negative=positive or negative circulating tumour cell status according to quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) score.
Significant P-values are shown in bold.