FIG. 2.

Levels of circulating hybrid cells (CHCs) are a marker of neoadjuvant treatment response in patients with esophageal and rectal adenocarcinoma. a Levels of circulating hybrid cells (CHCs) per 50,000 peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in rectal adenocarcinoma (RAC) patients with pathologic complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) compared with non-complete response (non-pCR) and healthy control subjects. The patients with pCR have significantly fewer CHCs than the non-pCR patients (P<0.001). b CHC levels in the patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) after NAT differ significantly between the patients with pCR and those with non-pCR (P = 0.001). c Random operating characteristics (ROC) analysis for detecting patients with pCR. The RAC cohort had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.971, whereas the EAC patients had an AUC of 0.800 (both P<0.001). Analysis with both groups combined showed an AUC of 0.855 (P<0.001). d Analysis of the RAC and EAC patients combined demonstrated a significantly higher level of CHCs in the patients with no response to NAT than in the incomplete responders (P = 0.031) or the complete responders (P = 0.003). The pCR group also had significantly lower CHC levels than the incomplete response group (P<0.001). *P>0.05. ** P = 0.031. ***P<0.01.