Co-expression of putative stemness and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition markers on single circulating tumour cells from patients with early and metastatic breast cancer

Table 2 Incidence of CTC phenotypes according to differential expression patterns of ALDH1 and TWIST in patients with early and metastatic breast cancer

CTC phenotypes	Patients (%)			Percentage of CTCs per patient (mean; range)			CTCs (%)
	Early	Metastatic	p value	Early	Metastatic	p value	Early	Metastatic
ALDH1 high	30.8	80.0	0.009	23 (0–100)	75 (0–100)	0.001	38.7	83.5
ALDH1 low/neg	92.3	32.0	0.006	77 (0–100)	25 (0–100)	0.001	61.3	16.5
TWIST nuc	30.8	80.0	0.009	29 (0–100)	73 (0–100)	0.006	32.3	70.3
TWIST cyt/neg	76.9	40.0	0.040	71 (0–100)	27 (0–100)	0.006	67.7	29.7

Chi-square test (Continuity Correction) and Mann Whitney test were used. Only patients with detectable CTCs were included; early setting: 13 patients and 31 CTCs; metastatic setting: 25 patients and 91 CTCs.

ISSN: 1471-2407