Table 1.

Clinical characteristics and correlation with CTC count in 113 pre-treated HCC patients.

Clinical Characteristics (N = 113)	Total CTC			Epithelial CTC			Biophenotypic CTC			Mesenchymal CTC
	≥3	<3	P	≥1	<1	P	≥1	<1	P	≥1	<1	P
All	89	24		52	61		98	15		57	56
Age, years			0.088			0.238			0.113			0.280
>50	58	20		33	45		65	13		42	36
≤50	31	4		19	16		33	2		15	20
Sex			0.778			0.297			0.801			0.982
Male	84	23		48	59		93	14		54	53
Female	5	1		4	2		5	1		3	3
HBsAg			0.863			0.992			0.812			0.794
Negative	10	3		6	7		11	2		7	6
Positive	79	21		46	54		87	13		50	50
Child-Pugh score			0.138			0.085			0.994			0.754
A	75	23		42	56		85	13		50	48
B	14	1		10	5		13	2		7	8
Liver cirrhosis			0.754			0.383			0.698			0.780
No	44	11		23	32		47	8		27	28
Yes	45	13		29	29		51	7		30	28
AFP			0.757			0.209			0.510			0.064
<20 ng/mL	34	10		17	27		37	7		27	17
≥20 ng/mL	55	14		35	34		61	8		30	39
No. of tumors			0.225			0.449			0.447			0.500
Single	47	16		27	36		56	7		30	33
Multiple	42	8		25	25		42	8		27	23
Tumor size			0.192			0.973			0.725			0.109
<5 cm	35	13		22	26		41	7		20	28
≥5 cm	54	11		30	35		57	8		37	28
Vascular invasion			0.614			0.410			0.856			0.957
No	66	19		41	44		74	11		43	42
Yes	23	5		11	17		24	4		14	14
BCLC stage			0.189			0.440			0.918			0.290
0 + A	28	11		16	23		34	5		17	22
B + C	61	13		36	38		64	10		40	34