High circulating tumor cell concentrations in a specific subtype of gastric cancer with diffuse bone metastasis at diagnosis

Table 1 Participant characteristics

Case	Gender	Age	Hist	DIC	Distant LN metastasis	Visceral metastasis	Treatment
1	M	50	por + sig	+	-	PC	S1 + DTX1
2	F	59	por	-	Para Aorta	LC (lung)	S1 + DTX
3	M	78	tub + por + sig	+	Para Aorta	-	wPTX2
4	M	38	por	-	Para Aorta	-	S1 + CDDP3
5	M	24	por + sig	-	Para Aorta	PC	S1

¹Administrated with S1 (40 mg/m², twice daily for 14 d) and DTX (33 - 40 mg/m²) every 3 wk;

²Administrated weekly with DTX (15 mg/m²) for 3 wk;

³Administrated with S1 (40 mg/m², twice daily for 21 d) and CDDP (60 mg/m²) every 5 wk. LN: Lymph node; PC: Peritonitis carcinomatosa; LC: Lymphangitis carcinomatosa; Por: Poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma; sig: Signet ring cell carcinoma; tub: Tubular adenocarcinoma; DTX: Docetaxel; CDDP: Cis-platinum.

Table 2 Circulating tumor cells count and therapeutic outcomes

Case	Tumor markers		CTC count	Date1 (the X d)	Effects	Survival (d)2
	pre (-) post3		pre (-) post3
1	CEA	288 (↓) 160	275 (↓) 2	16	non CR/non PD	160
	CA19-9	158 (↑) 690
2	CEA	120 (↓) 83	235 (↓) 7	11	(+) PR	246
	CA19-9	5201 (↑) 6543
3	CEA	1.4 (→) 1.3	6440 (↑) 7885	14	(-) PD	30
	CA19-9	7.6 (→) 8.3
4	CEA	15 (↓) 1.1	1724 (↓) 66	14	(+) PR	Alive > 120
	CA19-9	4.2 (→) 4.1
5	CEA	2.4 (↑) 12	4197 -ND	ND	(+) PD	31
	CA19-9	205 (↑) 653

¹The days of evaluation of tumor markers and CTC from the start of treatment;

²The days from the start of the treatment to death. CTC count is indicated as cells/7.5 mL. The units of CEA and CA19-9 are ng/mL and U/mL, respectively;

³The previous and post treatment values are indicated as pre - post. ↓: Decrease; ↑: Increase; →: No change. ND: Not done; Non CR/non PD: Case 1 has no target legions; PR: Partial response; PD: Progressive disease.