Table 1.
Demographics and characteristics of the study population.
| Characteristic | Whole Sample | PET Subsample | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C+ n = 19 |
C− n = 18 |
HC n = 37 |
Group Difference p Value * |
C+ n = 15 |
C− n = 15 |
HC n = 15 |
Group Difference p Value * |
|||||||
| Age in years, mean (SD) | 47 | (10) | 50 | (6) | 45 | (10) | 0.092 | 51 | (8) | 49 | (6) | 44 | (10) | 0.059 |
| Education in years, mean (SD) | 13 | (4) | 14 | (3) | 15 | (2) | 0.315 | 13 | (3) | 14 | (3) | 14 | (2) | 0.872 |
| Body-mass index in kg/m2, mean (SD) | 25 | (4) | 25 | (5) | 24 | (3) | 0.184 | 25 | (4) | 25 | (5) | 23 | (3) | 0.400 |
| Postmenopausal at diagnosis, no. (%) | 9 | (47) | 8 | (44) | - | 0.999 † | 9 | (60) | 6 | (40) | - | 0.273 † | ||
| Post- or perimenopausal at assessment, no. (%) | 15 | (79) | 8 | (44) | 13 | (34) | 0.006 † | 14 | (93) | 6 | (40) | 4 | (27) | 0.001 † |
| Days since end of chemotherapy/surgery, mean (SD) | 26 | (17) | 36 | (12) | - | 0.025 | 28 | (13) | 36 | (12) | - | 0.106 | ||
| Breast cancer stage, no. (%) | <0.001 † | 0.002 † | ||||||||||||
| 0–1 | 0 | (0) | 10 | (55) | - | - | 0 | (0) | 8 | (53) | - | - | ||
| 2 | 6 | (32) | 7 | (39) | - | - | 6 | (40) | 6 | (40) | - | - | ||
| 3 | 13 | (68) | 1 | (6) | - | - | 9 | (60) | 1 | (1) | - | - | ||
| Cancer treatment, no. (%) | ||||||||||||||
| Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (EC + T) | 8 | (42) | - | - | - | 8 | (53) | - | - | - | ||||
| Scheduled for radiotherapy | 13 | (68) | 11 | (61) | - | - | 10 | (67) | 9 | (60) | - | - | ||
| Scheduled for anti-hormone therapy | 9 | (47) | 14 | (78) | - | - | 8 | (53) | 12 | (80) | - | - | ||
| High affinity binders, no. (%) | - | - | - | - | 9 | (60) | 7 | (53) | 7 | (47) | 0.809 † | |||
| Injected activity in MBq, mean (SD) | - | - | - | - | 144 | (12) | 144 | (15) | 144 | (21) | 0.983 | |||
* Group differences tested with ANOVA for continuous variables and chi-square tests for categorical variables (last indicated by †). Abbreviations: C− = chemotherapy-naïve breast cancer patients, C+ = breast cancer patients treated with chemotherapy, HC = healthy controls, EC + T = 4 rounds of epirubicin 90 mg/m2 + cyclophosphamide 600 mg/m2 and 4–12 rounds of paclitaxel 80 mg/m2, SD = standard deviation.