Table 1.

Associations of preoperative CTCs with basal characteristics, pre- and postoperative tumor biomarkers, and tumor recurrence in stage II-III CRC

Parameters	Subgroups	Preoperative CTCs		χ2	P-value
		Negative	Positive
Gender	Male	41	35	0.739	0.390
	Female	25	29
Age	≤62 yrs	34	27	1.135	0.287
	>62 yrs	32	37
Tumor location	Rectum	27	20	1.313	0.252
	Colon	39	44
T stage	T1-2	8	12	1.097	0.295
	T3-4	58	52
N stage	N0	37	40	0.558	0.455
	N1-2	29	24
TNM stage	II	36	39	0.544	0.461
	III	30	25
Tumor differentiation	Poor	5	7	0.519	0.471
	Moderate/well	61	55
Preoperative CA125	Negative	53	47	0.601	0.438
	Positive	13	16
Preoperative CA19-9	Negative	58	57	0.045	0.833
	Positive	8	7
Preoperative CA72-4	Negative	58	57	1.147	0.284
	Positive	8	4
Preoperative CEA	Negative	44	46	0.414	0.520
	Positive	22	18
Postoperative CA125	Negative	36	36	0.412	0.521
	Positive	16	12
Postoperative CA19-9	Negative	62	55	2.312	0.128
	Positive	4	9
Postoperative CA72-4	Negative	58	61	2.318	0.128
	Positive	8	3
Postoperative CEA	Negative	59	59	0.303	0.582
	Positive	7	5
Tumor recurrence	No recurrence	52	50	0.630	0.427
	Recurrence	11	7

Abbreviations: CRC, colorectal cancer; CTCs, circulating tumor cells; CEA, carcinoembryonic antigen; CA125, carbohydrate antigen 125; CA19-9, carbohydrate antigen 19-9; CA72-4, carbohydrate antigen 72-4.