Prognostic value and therapeutic efficacy of interstitial circulating tumor cells in patients with advanced gastric cancer

Table 1 Relationship between interstitial circulating tumor cells and clinicopathological characteristics of patients with advanced gastric cancer, n (%)

Clinicopathological features	I-CTCs negative (n = 26)	I-CTCs positive (n = 33)	χ2	P value
Gender
Male	20 (43.5)	26 (56.5)
Female	6 (46.2)	7 (53.8)	0.029	0.864
Age, years
< 60	18 (52.9)	16 (47.1)
≥ 60	8 (32)	17 (68.0)	2.563	0.109
TNM staging
II	16 (53.3)	14 (46.7)
III	10 (34.5)	19 (65.5)	2.126	0.145
Infiltration depth
T1-T2	10 (58.8)	7 (41.2)
T3-T4	16 (38.1)	26 (61.9)	2.110	0.146
Lymph node metastasis
N0-N1	17 (54.8)	14 (45.2)
N2-N3	9 (32.1)	19 (67.9)	3.075	0.080
Degree of differentiation
Well	19 (59.4)	13 (40.6)
Poor	7 (25.9)	20 (74.1)	6.647	0.010
CEA
< 5	23 (47.9)	25 (52.1)
≥ 5	3 (27.3)	8 (72.7)	1.547	0.214
CA125
< 35	22 (42.3)	30 (57.7)
≥ 35	4 (57.1)	3 (42.9)	0.551	0.458
CA19-9
< 37	20 (41.7)	28 (58.3)
≥ 37	6 (54.5)	5 (45.5)	0.602	0.438
CA72-4
< 10	21 (41.2)	30 (58.8)
≥ 10	5 (62.5)	3 (37.5)	1.276	0.259

I-CTCs: Interstitial circulating tumor cells; TNM: Tumor-node-metastasis; CEA: Carcinoembryonic antigen; CA: Carbohydrate antigen.

Table 2 Relationship between interstitial circulating tumor cells and the efficacy of chemotherapy in patients with advanced gastric cancer, n (%)

	I-CTCs negative (n = 9)	I-CTCs positive (n = 7)	χ2	P value
Chemotherapy regimens
SOX	7 (53.8)	6 (46.2)
XELOX	2 (66.7)	1 (33.3)	0.163	0.687
Chemotherapy efficacy
DC	8 (80)	2 (20)
PD	1 (16.7)	5 (83.3)	6.112	0.013

I-CTCs: Interstitial circulating tumor cells; PD: Progressive disease; DC: Disease control.

Table 3 Results of univariate analysis affecting the prognosis of patients with advanced gastric cancer

Prognostic factors	HR	95%CI	P value
Gender, male vs female	0.975	0.271-0.501	0.969
Age, < 60 years vs ≥ 60 years	2.427	0.859-6.851	0.094
Degree of differentiation, well vs poor	4.076	1.291-12.863	0.017
TNM staging, I-II vs III	1.041	0.365-2.968	0.941
Infiltration depth, T1-T2 vs T3-T4	3.676	0.821-16.462	0.089
Lymph node metastasis, N0-1 vs N2-3	1.020	0.357-2.912	0.970
I-CTCs, negative vs positive	17.158	2.227-132.196	0.006
CEA, < 5 vs ≥ 5	1.732	0.531-5.646	0.362
CA125, < 35 vs ≥ 35	0.041	0-66.291	0.397
CA19-9, < 37 vs ≥ 37	0.348	0.045-2.663	0.309
CA72-4, < 10 vs ≥ 10	0.936	0.208-4.205	0.931

I-CTCs: Interstitial circulating tumor cells; TNM: Tumor-node-metastasis; CEA: Carcinoembryonic antigen; CA: Carbohydrate antigen.

Table 4 Results of multifactorial analysis affecting the prognosis of patients with advanced gastric cancer

Prognostic factors	HR	95%CI	P value
Degree of differentiation, well vs poor	2.357	0.725-7.662	0.154
I-CTCs, negative vs positive	13.323	1.675-105.962	0.014

I-CTCs: Interstitial circulating tumor cells.