Circulating tumor cells with karyotyping as a novel biomarker for diagnosis and treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Table 4 The relationship between CTCs number with different karyotypes and TNM stage of NPC patients

Stage^a	Newly diagnosis (M0, N = 29)			Relapse/Distant metastasis after treatment (N = 21)
	Mean number of CTCs			Mean number of CTCs
	Triploid	Tetraploid	Multiploid^b	Diploid^c	Triploid	Tetraploid	Multiploid
Total	1.6	0.5	1.1	1.2	2.1	1.6	3.7
T-classification
T1	1.5	0.25	0.5	0	1.0	1.5	0
T2	1.2	0.6	2.0	0	1.7	0.3	1.3
T3	1.3	0.7	1.0	0	3.0	2.0	2.5
T4	2.1	1.1	1.6	2.6	2.0	1.7	5.8
N-classification
N0	1.7	1.0	0.3	0	8.0	7.0	1.0
N1	1.0	0	0	3.7	2.6	2.7	7.4
N2	1.7	0.8	1.9	0	1.7	0.2	0.7
N3	1.4	0.6	0	0	1.0	1.3	4.5
TNM stage
II	0.5	0	0	0	1.0	1.5	0
III	1.5	0.6	1.6	0	2.7	1.1	0.7
IV	1.9	1.0	1.3	2.2	2.0	1.8	6.0

^a Stage for patients with relapse/distant metastasis after treatment refered to TNM stage at NPC initial diagnosis
^b Multiploid of chromosome 8 contained pentaploidy and those > 5 copies
c Only one patient with distant metastasis was detected EpCAM (+) diploid CTCs

ISSN: 1471-2407