Detection of circulating tumor cells with CK20 RT-PCR is an independent negative prognostic marker in colon cancer patients – a prospective study

Table 1 Patients’ clinical and pathological characteristics and univariate analysis of factors influencing the 5-year overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS) rate

Characteristics	Category	n	%	5y-OS (%)	P	5y-DFS (%)	P
CK20 blood	positive	112	37.4	68	0.002	78	0.021
(n = 299)	negative	187	62.6	85		89
CK20 bone marrow	positive	81	35.7	71	0.09	85	0.419
(n = 227)	negative	146	63.3	79		86
pan-cytokeratin	positive	30	22.4	59	0.048	61	0.041
(n = 134)	negative	104	77.6	76		80
EpCAM	positive	12	19.7	55	0.958	44	0.548
(n = 61)	negative	49	80.3	64		72
Sex	male	168	56.2	79	0.70	84	0.563
Sex	female	131	43.8	77		87
Age [years]	<70	160	53.5	82	0.045	88	0.332
Age [years]	> 70	139	46.5	74		83
UICC stage	I	87	29.1	98	<0.001	99	<0.001
	II	94	31.4	89		90
	III	80	26.8	71		77
	IV	38	12.7	24		48
pT	T1	42	14.0	98	<0.001	98	0.005
	T2	70	23.4	89		94
	T3	159	53.2	73		80
	T4	28	9.4	47		75
pN	N0	190	63.6	91	<0.001	93	<0.001
	N1	65	21.7	64		76
	N2	44	14.7	46		64
Grading	G1	21	7.0	95	0.054	76	0.704
	G2	236	78.9	79		85
	G3	42	14.1	65		91
Operation	right hemicolectomy	108	36.3
	left hemicolectomy	36	12.0
	transverse colon resection	18	6.0
	sigmoid colon resection	122	40.8
	subtotal colectomy	15	5.0

ISSN: 1471-2407