Table 3.

Quantitative levels of NPC circulating biomarkers in 46 pre-treatment samples.

Patient ID	AJCC 7th Stage	Status on Follow-up	Pre-Treatment
			BamHI-W qPCR Assay (copies/mL)	EBNA1-qPCR Assay (copies/mL)	EBNA1-dPCR Assay (copies/mL)	Canonical CTCs (cells/mL)	Potential CTCs (cells/mL)
001	III	NED	70,569	5,416	9,484	0	3
002	III	NED	9,728	385	1,109	0	12
003	III	NED	10,631	855	1,376	NA	NA
004	III	NED	507	30	43	0	0
005	IV	NED	1,324	80	168	5	13
006	I	NED	0	0	0	4	13
007	I	NED	21	0	9	0	20
008	I	NED	107	0	0	0	14
009	III	DOD	18,572	5,425	3,636	NA	NA
010	IV	AWD	1,249	36	132	3	4
011	II	NED	23,507	2,838	3,656	2	1
012	IV	DOD	99,379	18,816	14,199	6	146
013	II	NED	301	0	28	0	0
014	I	NED	0	0	0	1	12
017	II	NED	67	0	21	50	134
018	IV	NED	441,316	13,565	50,081	11	29
019	I	NED	162	0	13	18	44
020	III	NED	4,860	0a	804	16	17
021	III	NED	1,236	33	49	37	76
022	III	NED	44,918	1,964	3,949	NA	NA
023	III	NED	29,006	777	3,272	NA	NA
024	I	NED	0	49	0	31	63
025	IV	NA	290,961	16,727	53,740	5	68
026	IV	NED	1,157	121	230	16	83
027	III	NED	6,687	431	1,356	4	21
028	I	NED	360	0	53	1	7
029	III	NED	6,072	303	816	17	47
030	III	NED	8,226	714	1,095	0	15
031	IV	NED	9,507	442	670	4	19
032	II	NED	92	0	42	3	67
033	IV	DOD	1,743,700	0a	193,125	6	44
034	III	NED	9,043	447	1,279	1	63
035	II	NED	146	21	0	1	14
036	III	NED	105	0	0	0	182
037	II	NED	669	0	63	3	13
038	IV	AWD	81	26	105	3	31
039	III	DOD	6,613	439	780	1	15
040	III	NED	5,106	623	1,125	1	14
041	II	NED	331	84	46	NA	NA
042	III	NED	2,156	171	241	NA	NA
043	III	NED	56,490	8,829	9,894	NA	NA
044	IV	DOD	88,432	12,074	16,850	NA	NA
045	IV	NED	33,057	6,014	5,319	NA	NA
046	I	NED	131	55	7	NA	NA
047	IV	NED	0	0	0	NA	NA
048	II	NED	0	0	7	NA	NA

Abbreviations: NPC, nasopharyngeal carcinoma; AJCC, American Joint Committee on Cancer; CTCs, circulating tumour cells; NED, no evidence of disease; AWD, alive with disease; DOD, dead of disease; NA, data are not available.

^aPCR inhibition.