Table 1. Descriptive statistics of patients and tumor characteristics are shown for those (A) employing whole genome microarray (mRNA) and NGS (small RNAs including miRNAs) and (b) using qRT-PCR for selected 95 different miRNAs.

metastasis subtype	descriptive statistic	age at diagnosis (years)	tumor size (mm)	initial clinical stage
A) whole genome microarray and NGS analysis
detectable	mean	45,2	37,8	cSIIb-c
	stdev	10,8	14,9
	min	31,6	12,0
	max	60,7	50,0
	n	5
occult	mean	32,1	38,6	cSI
	stdev	5,4	16,2
	min	23,4	18,0
	max	36,6	55,0
	n	5
	p-value	0,04	0,9
B) qRT-PCR
detectable	mean	37,4	49,4	cSIIb-c
	stdev	7,2	35,1
	min	21,1	10,0
	max	51,6	180,0
	n	36
occult	mean	45,4	45,8	cSI
	stdev	4,5	21,0
	min	38,0	24,0
	max	51,0	80,0
	n	5
	p-value	0,02	0,8

P-values were calculated using either the t-test or a non-parametric Mann-Whitney rank sum test where applicable.