Circulating Tumor Cells Predict Survival in Early Average-to-High Risk Breast Cancer Patients

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have been shown to predict reduced survival outcomes in metastatic breast cancer.

CTCs were analyzed in 2026 patients with early breast cancer before adjuvant chemotherapy and in 1492 patients after chemotherapy using the CellSearch System. After immuno-magnetic enrichment for cells expressing the epithelial-cell adhesion molecule, CTCs were defined as nucleated cells expressing cytokeratin and lacking CD45. The patients were followed for a median of 35 months (range = 0-54). Kaplan-Meier analyses and the log-rank test were used for survival analyses. All statistical tests were two-sided.