Prognostic relevance of circulating CK19 mRNA in advanced malignant biliary tract diseases

Table 3 Clinical characteristics of patients with negative and positive cytokeratin 19 and human telomerase reverse transcriptase gene expression

	CK19 gene		P value	hTERT gene		P value
	Negative	Positive		Negative	Positive
Age (yr)	63.80	61.38	0.42	65.26	60.88	0.16
Sex (male: female)	11:11	12:6	0.351	8:8	15:9	0.521
Total bilirubin (mg/dL)	16.21	16.42	0.95	17.73	15.47	0.53
Albumin (g/dL)	2.88	2.97	0.62	2.83	2.99	0.36
Globulin (g/dL)	3.98	3.76	0.42	3.92	3.84	0.79
AST (U/L)	84.57	112.80	0.23	69.27	117.48	0.12
ALT (U/L)	42.47	65.85	0.12	34.87	66.68	0.28
ALP (IU/L)	449.68	528.85	0.56	436.88	421.91	0.98
BUN (mg/dL)	13.77	26.58	0.13	12.25	23.52	0.18
Creatinine (mg/dL)	0.75	1.30	0.20	0.61	1.19	0.22
CA19-9 (U/mL)	570.20	594.30	0.622	1818.00	259.15	0.112
CEA (ng/mL)	7.47	5.68	0.502	7.21	5.82	0.232

Quantitative variables are presented as the mean value, with the exception of cancer antigen (CA)19-9 and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), which are presented as median values.

¹Pearson χ² was used to compare two groups;

²Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare groups. CK19: Cytokeratin 19; hTERT: Human telomerase reverse transcriptase; AST: Aspartate aminotransferase; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; ALP: Alkaline phosphatase; BUN: Blood urea nitrogen.