Circulating cytokeratin-positive cells and tumor budding in colorectal cancer

Table 1 Clinicopathological data

	Complete collective n = 56	CK+ cell negative n = 27	CK+ cell positive n = 29	P-value	CK+ cell cluster negative n = 42	CK+ cell cluster positive n = 14	P-value
Mean age ± SD	70 ± 13	71 ± 11	69 ± 11	0.844	71 ± 12	66 ± 13	0.167
Gender (M:F)	1:1.5	1:1.7	1:1.4	1.0	1:2	1:0.75	0.538
Laparoscopic surgery	15 (27%)	5 (19%)	10 (34%)		10 (24%)	5 (36%)
Open surgery	41 (73%)	22 (81%)	19 (66%)	0.223	32 (76%)	9 (64%)	0.489
Right colon	21 (38%)	10 (37%)	11 (38%)		16 (38%)	5 (36%)
Left colon	29 (52%)	13 (48%)	16 (55%)	0.927	21 (50%)	8 (57%)	0.979
Rectum	6 (11%)	4 (15%)	2 (7%)	0.4141	5 (12%)	1 (7%)	1.0a
Mean LN count ± SD	32 ± 19	29 ± 16	35 ± 21	0.219	30 ± 16	36 ± 25	0.961
LN positivity	20 (36%)	11 (41%)	9 (31%)	0.632	16 (38%)	4 (29%)	0.747
Low grade	33 (59%)	17 (63%)	22 (76%)		28 (67%)	11 (79%)
High grade	20 (36%)	8 (30%)	6 (21%)	0.576	11 (26%)	3 (21%)	0.735
Non-malignant	3 (5%)	2 (7%)	1 (3%)	n.c.	3 (7%)	0 (0%)	n.c.
pT1/2	16 (29%)	7 (26%)	9 (31%)		11 (26%)	5 (36%)
pT3/4	37 (66%)	18 (67%)	19 (66%)	0.977	28 (67%)	9 (64%)	0.736
Mean budding ± SD	21 ± 27	20 ± 23	22 ± 30	0.957	19 ± 20	21 ± 26	0.663
High grade budding	16 (29%)	6 (22%)	10 (34%)	0.472	10 (24%)	6 (43%)	0.190
Distant metastases	11 (20%)	5 (19%)	6 (21%)	1.0	8 (19%)	3 (21%)	1.0

¹Rectum vs colon. CK⁺: Cytokeratin positive; SD: Standard deviation; LN: Lymph node; n.c.: Not calculated.