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.

Table 2 Literature: Circulating tumor cells in the mesenteric blood

Ref.	n	Year	Method	Material	Stages	%positive	Prognostic relevance
Leather et al[18]	42	1993	ICC	Mesenteric and peripheral blood	I, II, III, IV	15	n.a.
Nakamori et al[19]	35	1997	PCR	Mesenteric and peripheral blood	I, II, III, IV	26	uv predictive for recurrence
Luo et al[20]	54	1999	PCR	Mesenteric blood	I, II, III, IV	76	Predictive for metastases
Taniguchi et al[22]	53	2000	PCR	Mesenteric and peripheral blood	I, II, III	68	uv survival
Yamaguchi et al[23]	52	2000	PCR	Mesenteric blood	I, II, III, IV	44	mv survival
Iinuma et al[21]	23	2000	MACS	Mesenteric blood	I, II, III, IV	39	uv survival
Fujita et al[25]	35	2001	PCR	Mesenteric blood	I, II, III	29	uv recurrence/survival
Etoh et al[24]	24	2001	PCR	Mesenteric blood	I, II, III, IV	29	uv recurrence/survival
Guller et al[26]	39	2002	PCR	Mesenteric and peripheral blood	I, II, III	81/282	3
Tien et al[27]	58	2002	PCR	Mesenteric and peripheral blood	II, III, IV	454	n.a.
Akashi et al[28]	80	2003	PCR	Mesenteric blood	I, II, III	44	uv metastatic disease; mv no
Nozawa et al[29]	41	2003	RTA	Mesenteric and peripheral blood	I, II, III, IV	37	uv predictive for metastatic disease
Sunouchi et al[30]	37	2003	PCR	Mesenteric blood	I, II, III, IV	43	uv survival
Zhang et al[32]	58	2005	PCR	Bone marrow, portal blood, peripheral blood	I, II, III, IV	74	correlation with stage - no outcome analysis
Sadahiro et al[31]	100	2005	PCR	Mesenteric and peripheral blood	I, II, III	455/486	no
Kanellos et al[34]	108	2006	PCR	Mesenteric blood	I, II, III	11	uv metastatic disease/survival
Iinuma et al[33]	167	2006	PCR	Mesenteric and peripheral blood	I, II, III, IV	10/347	mv survival
Tseng et al[35]	135	2015	FACS	Mesenteric	I, II, III	68	mv survival

¹Blood;

²Blood and peritoneal fluid;

³No separate evaluation for blood samples;

⁴Multiple measurements;

⁵Mesenteric blood;

⁶Peripheral blood;

⁷Mesenteric. n.a.: Not available; uv: Uni-variable; mv: Multi-variable; ICC: Immunocytochemistry; PCR: Polymerase chain reaction; MACS: Magnetic activated cell sorting; FACS: Fluorescence activated cell sorting.