Table 2.

CTC enumeration

Group	Pt	c-stage	p-stage	Pathological effect†	periCTCs		pvCTCs*
					Evaluation	Count	Evaluation	Count
IT	#1	3A	0	Complete	Negative	0	Negative	0
IT	#2	3A	0	Complete	Negative	0	Negative	0
IT	#3	3A	0	Complete	Negative	1	Negative	0
IT	#4	3A	0	Complete	Negative	0	Negative	1
IT	#5	3A	1A	Major	Negative	0	Positive	12
IT	#6	3A	1B	Major	Negative	0	Positive	60
IT	#7	3A	3A	Major	Negative	0	Positive	4
IT	#8	3A	3A	Major	Negative	0	Positive	5
IT	#9	3A	3A	Minor	Negative	0	Positive	108
SA	#1	1A	1A	-	Negative	0	Positive	4
SA	#2	1A	1A	-	Negative	0	Positive	51
SA	#3	1B	1B	-	Negative	0	Positive	8
SA	#4	1B	1B	-	Negative	0	Positive	216
SA	#5	2A	2A	-	Negative	0	Positive	111
SA	#6	2B	2A	-	Negative	0	Positive	855

Abbreviations: IT Induction chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery, SA Surgery alone.

Pathological effect^†; complete, viable tumor cells do not exist at all in the resected specimen; major, viable tumor cells remained in one-third of resected specimens; minor, viable tumor cells remained in more than one-third of resected specimens.

^*Significant difference was observed between major/minor and complete response cases (p = 0.012, Mann–Whitney U test) and between the SA and IT groups (p = 0.038).