Persistent tumor cells in bone marrow of non-metastatic breast cancer patients after primary surgery are associated with inferior outcome

Table 2 The number of positive bone marrow (BM) samples shown separately for the three mRNA markers mammaglobin A (hMAM), cytokeratin 19 (CK19) and TWIST1, as well as in combination by construction of a multimarker panel

*BM samples*	*No. of* *patients*	*Missing* *data*	*Marker expression*			*Multimarker* positive*
*BM samples*	*No. of* *patients*	*Missing* *data*	*hMAM*	*CK19*	*TWIST1*	*Multimarker* positive*
BM1	154	0	4 (3)	14 (8)	5 (2)	21 (11)
BM2	144	10	6 (5)	5 (2)	9 (4)	17 (8)
BM3	109	45	6 (3)	1 (1)	2 (1)	7 (3)
BM2 and/or BM3	154	0	11 (7)	5 (2)	11 (5)	23 (10)

BM1 drawn prior to surgery; BM2 drawn three weeks after primary surgery; BM3 drawn six months after primary surgery.
The number of systemic relapse is shown in parentheses.
*Positive for at least one of the markers hMAM, CK19 and TWIST1.

ISSN: 1471-2407