Table 4.

Clinicopathological characteristics of BC patients diagnosed by CTC combined with US, CTC combined with MMG, or US combined with MMG.

Groups	n	CTC + US		p Value#	CTC + MMG		p Value#	US + MMG		p Value#
		Positive*	Negative		Positive*	Negative		Positive*	Negative
BC Patients	238	215	23	<0.0001	207	31	<0.0001	207	31	<0.0001
Patients with BBD	217	58	159		35	182		50	167
Healthy volunteers	20	0	20		0	20		0	20
(All BC patients number = 238)
AJCC Stage				0.0137			0.0951			0.03
0	17	12	5		12	5		11	6
I	82	71	11		68	14		69	13
II	106	100	6		96	10		96	10
III	31	30	1		29	2		29	2
IV	2	2	0		2	0		2	0
TNM Stage
Tumor Size				0.0662			0.119			0.0695
Tis	17	12	5		12	5		11	6
T1	117	106	11		99	18		102	15
T2	91	85	6		84	7		82	9
T3	11	10	1		10	1		10	1
T4	2	2	0		2	0		2	0
Lymph Node Involvement				0.0115			0.0596			0.1872
N0	142	121	21		118	24		118	24
N1	72	71	1		68	4		67	5
N2	15	14	1		12	3		14	1
N3	9	9	0		9	0		8	1
Lymph Node Metastasis				0.0011			0.0307			0.0307
Yes	96	94	2		89	7		89	7
No	142	121	21		118	24		118	24

BC, breast cancer; CTC, circulating tumor cell; US, ultrasound; MMG, mammogram; n, number of patients; BBD, benign breast diseases; AJCC, American Joint Committee on Cancer; TNM, tumor-node-metastasis; Tis, tumor in situ.

^*Based on the Youden index analysis, CTC, US and MMG cut-off values were 2, 4b, and 4b, respectively. As long as any measurement of composing parameter was higher than its cut-off value, the combination result would be considered as positive for diagnosis.

^#The p value of comparisons is based on the positive proportion among groups.

Bold values mean statistical significances.