Table 3.

Association between CTCs and plasma cytokines

Cytokine	Mean	SEM	Median	P-value
IFN-α2 (ng/mL)
CTC_EP -	100.52	2.01	98.45	0.002
CTC_EP+	116.29	4.84	112.74
IL-3 (ng/mL)
CTC_EP -	40.76	2.90	33.21	0.029
CTC_EP+	52.48	6.77	52.83
MCP-3 (ng/mL)
CTC_EP -	53.82	3.53	44.01	0.013
CTC_EP+	73.17	8.29	79.21
β-NGF (ng/mL)
CTC_EP -	1.25	0.18	0.86	0.002
CTC_EP+	1.52	0.44	1.31
SCF (ng/mL)
CTC_EP -	51.52	2.61	44.74	0.004
CTC_EP+	68.62	6.48	69.91
SCGF-β (ng/mL)
CTC_EP -	17377.49	820.65	15565.08	0.008
CTC_EP+	22633.38	2029.19	20271.15
SDF-1α (ng/mL)
CTC_EP -	223.75	9.35	219.53	0.036
CTC_EP+	265.86	22.85	262.79
TNF-β (ng/mL)
CTC_EP -	0.47	0.04	0.37	0.008
CTC_EP+	0.67	0.11	0.71
CTACK (ng/mL)
CTC_EMT -	1394.47	43.93	1343.50	0.046
CTC_EMT+	1185.51	110.71	1055.12
β − NGF (ng/mL)
CTC_EMT -	1.38	0.17	0.95	0.046
CTC_EMT+	0.77	0.43	0.77
TRAIL (ng/mL)
CTC_EMT -	50.57	2.83	44.37	0.044
CTC_EMT+	37.91	7.21	29.28
TGF-β2 (ng/mL)
Any CTC -	2099.93	61.43	2052.98	0.016
Any CTC+	2395.52	102.38	2227.53

Abbreviations: SEM standard error of the mean, CTC_EP – epithelial circulating tumor cells absent, CTC_EP+ epithelial circulating tumor cells absent, CTC_EMT mesenchymal circulating tumor cells absent, CTC_EMT+,– mesenchymal circulating tumor cells present