Fig. 1

Comparison of perioperative CTC counts in patients with HCC and benign hepatic tumors. a Frequency distribution of preoperative CTC counts in HCC and benign hepatic tumor patients; b Frequency distribution of preoperative and postoperative CTC counts in 139 HCC patients; c Ladder plots displaying preoperative and postoperative CTC counts for each HCC patient; d Incidence of increase, decrease or no change in the postoperative CTC counts relative to the preoperative CTC counts from the same HCC patient