Table 2 Serial analysis results of CTC counts, blood mutation load (BML), plasma EBV and imaging for 21 metastatic NPC patients.

From: Clinical utility of serial analysis of circulating tumour cells for detection of minimal residual disease of metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Patients

# CTC samples

CTC

EBV (copies/ml)

Imaging

CTC count

# mutations

BML (#/Mb)a

PFS (months)

1

3

1

7838542

PET1

1

–

–

 
  

3

102813

PET2: PMR

4

–

–

 
  

4

172708

PET3: SMD

11

–

–

Yes (4)

  

1

24958

PET1

NA

–

–

 

2

4

2

386

 

0

–

–

 
  

3

452

PET2:PMR

NA

–

–

 
  

4

428

PET3:SMD

2

25

3.6

Yes (5)

3

4

1

173958

PET1

0

–

–

 
  

2

86094

 

0

–

–

 
  

3

41615

PET2: SMD

1

–

–

 
  

4

15896

PET3: PMD

2

66

9.4

Yes (5)

4

4

1

10895471

PET1

2

–

–

 
  

2

1191406

 

7

–

–

 
  

3

33203125

PET2: PMR

2

–

–

 
  

4

27791667

PET3: PMD

4

3

0.4

Yes (5)

5

4

1

394636

PET1

3

–

–

 
  

2

3268

 

18

–

–

 
  

3

3825

PET2: PMR

2

–

–

 
  

4

3922

PET3: PMD

2

113

16.1

Yes (5)

6

4

1

7109375

PET1

5

–

–

 
  

2

156458

 

2

–

–

 
  

3

385417

PET2: PMR

1

–

–

 
  

4

367083

PET3: PMD

2

25

3.6

Yes (5)

7

4

1

34740

PET1

1

–

–

 
  

2

41

 

0

–

–

 
  

3

102

PET2: PMR

0

–

–

 
  

4

2271

PET3: PMD

1

100

14.3

Yes (6)

8

4

1

504167

PET1

8

–

–

 
  

2

1103

 

5

–

–

 
  

3

654

PET2: PMR

4

–

–

 
  

4

2217

PET3: PMD

0

129

18.4

Yes (4)

  

1

52792

PET1

3

–

–

 

9

4

2

4879

 

4

–

–

 
  

3

812

PET2:PMR

8

–

–

 
  

4

1121

PET3:PMD

18

38

5.4

Yes (5)

10

4

1

42396

PET1

3

–

–

 
  

2

0

 

1

–

–

 
  

3

27

PET2: PMR

0

–

–

 
  

4

0

PET3: PMR

2

(a) 222

31.7

Yes (11)

      

(b) 267

38.1

 

11

4

1

75542

PET1

5

–

–

 
  

2

109

 

8

–

–

 
  

3

19

PET2: PMR

2

–

–

 
  

4

2329

PET3: PMR

4

46

6.6

Yes (12)

12

4

1

1204

PET1

0

–

–

 
  

2

0

 

0

–

–

 
  

3

0

PET2: PMR

0

–

–

 
  

4

0

PET3: PMR

0

21

3

Yes (25)

  

1

94

PET1

0

–

–

 

13

4

2

15

 

5

–

–

 
  

3

0

PET2:SMD

8

–

–

 
  

4

0

PET3:PMR

5

–

–

No (15)

14

5

1

341146

PET1

0

–

–

 
  

2

50

 

1

–

–

 
  

3

166

PET2: PMR

0

113

16.1

 
  

4

7

PET3: CMR

2

75

10.7

Yes (10)

  

5

963

 

1

78

11.1

 
      

(b) 46

6.6

 

15

4

1

123958

PET1

0

–

–

 
  

2

86

 

0

–

–

 
  

3

0

PET2: PMR

1

–

–

 
  

4

0

PET3: CMR

1

3

0.4

Yes (24)

16

4

1

399583

PET1

0

–

–

 
  

2

288

 

0

–

–

 
  

3

648

PET2: PMR

–

–

–

 
  

4

119

PET3: CMR

4

–

–

Yes (8)

17

4

1

20427

PET1

2

–

–

 
  

2

0

 

0

–

–

 
  

3

0

PET2: CMR

0

–

–

 
  

4

53

PET3: CMR

0

40

5.7

Yes (9)

18

4

1

40818

PET1

2

–

–

 
  

2

93

 

0

–

–

 
  

3

11

PET2: CMR

0

–

–

 
  

4

0

PET3: CMR

0

2

0.3

No (28)

19

4

1

899

PET1

0

–

–

 
  

2

0

 

4

–

–

 
  

3

0

PET2: CMR

0

–

–

 
  

4

0

PET3: CMR

0

160

22.9

No (17)

  

1

165

PET1

0

–

–

 

20

3

2

666

 

0

–

–

 
  

3

–

PET2:CMR

–

–

–

No (30)

  

4

35

PET3:CMR

0

–

–

 
  

1

230417

PET1

0

–

–

 

21

4

2

217

 

0

–

–

 
  

3

0

PET2:CMR

1

–

–

 
  

4

4

PET3:CMR

2

–

–

No (18)

  1. PET1, PET2 and PET3 refer to the baseline, middle (before 3rd cycle) and end of treatment, respectively. The high purity runs for CTC enrichment of patients 1, 13, 16, 20 and 21, were not applicable for NGS analysis. Sufficient blood samples were available for duplicate BML analysis for patients 10 and 14.
  2. aBML > 0.57 is defined as positive (four mutations were set as the cut-off in 7 Mb capture regions in the cell line spike-in experiment).
  3. Patient died were shown as bold values in the table.
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