Table 3 Subgroup analyses of the prognostic effect of CTCs detected in the peripheral blood.
Disease progression | Disease survival | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
n | HR (95% CI) | P heterogeneity | I 2 (%) | n | HR (95% CI) | P heterogeneity | I 2 (%) | |
Patient number | ||||||||
<100 | 10 | 1.37 (0.82–2.31) | 0.060 | 45.0 | 7 | 2.47 (0.99–6.16) | 0.029 | 57.3 |
≥100 | 9 | 4.40 (2.32–8.35) | <0.001 | 88.6 | 8 | 2.40 (1.59–3.62) | 0.004 | 66.2 |
Sampling time | ||||||||
Preoperative | 9 | 2.57 (1.57–4.21) | 0.003 | 65.5 | 8 | 3.71 (2.78–4.96) | 0.903 | 0.0 |
Postoperative | 8 | 2.41 (1.24–4.69) | <0.001 | 81.1 | 7 | 1.47 (0.89–2.42) | 0.051 | 52.0 |
Detection method | ||||||||
RT-PCR | 15 | 2.43 (1.49–3.96) | <0.001 | 76.2 | 10 | 2.52 (1.64–3.90) | 0.038 | 49.2 |
Immunological methodsa | 4 | 3.32 (1.04–10.61) | <0.001 | 90.2 | 5 | 2.33 (1.13–4.82) | 0.006 | 72.4 |
Detection rate (%) | ||||||||
<35 | 9 | 4.29 (2.61–7.08) | <0.001 | 76.0 | 9 | 3.18 (2.43–4.15) | 0.385 | 6.1 |
≥35 | 10 | 1.41 (0.75–2.66) | <0.001 | 71.4 | 6 | 1.28 (0.65–2.51) | 0.083 | 48.6 |
TNM stage | ||||||||
TNM II | 2 | 2.21 (1.15–4.24) | 0.518 | 0.0 | 1 | 6.40 (1.63–25.16) | — | — |
TNM III | 4 | 1.55 (0.55–4.39) | 0.004 | 77.6 | 2 | 2.06 (0.38–10.99) | 0.014 | 83.4 |
Dukes’ stage | ||||||||
Dukes’ B | 2 | 3.25 (1.89–5.57) | 0.890 | 0.0 | 2 | 3.38 (1.73–6.61) | 0.829 | 0.0 |
Dukes’ C | 2 | 3.13 (1.93–5.09) | 0.853 | 0.0 | 3 | 2.63 (1.67–4.12) | 0.981 | 0.0 |
Cancer type | ||||||||
Colon cancer | 4 | 5.62 (3.82–8.28) | 0.519 | 0.0 | 3 | 2.89 (1.82–4.59) | 0.607 | 0.0 |
Rectal cancer | 3 | 3.88 (2.01–7.48) | 0.804 | 0.0 | 2 | 4.43 (1.43–13.68) | 0.474 | 0.0 |
Multivariate adjustment | ||||||||
Yes | 12 | 3.62 (2.06–6.37) | <0.001 | 86.4 | 8 | 2.90 (1.78–4.72) | 0.002 | 69.9 |
No | 7 | 1.15 (0.72–1.83) | 0.691 | 0.0 | 7 | 1.78 (0.98–3.24) | 0.128 | 39.5 |
