The prognostic value of a CTC count in newly diagnosed IBC has not been established.
The prognostic value of a CTC count was found to be superior to that of tumor burden as measured by Swenerton score or by serum tumor markers, ascribing a peculiar biological value to CTCs.
We also showed, for patients with metastatic IBC, that differences in OS between patients with fewer than five CTCs and others with five or more CTCs were not statistically significant; hence, the prognostic value of a CTC count in patients with pretreated metastatic IBC is limited [ 24].
Fisher's exact test was used when the expected value of any count was below 5.
In the present study, we investigated the prognostic value of a baseline CTC count and the relation between a baseline CTC count and primary tumor characteristics in patients with newly diagnosed IBC.
The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic value of a baseline CTC count in patients with newly diagnosed IBC.
An increase in the average value of a particular trait counts as a trend in the most basic sense, but averages and other summary statistics are not real entities, and biological systems are most often characterized by extensive variation.
The predictive value of mitotic count (panel a) was higher than the predictive value of the tumor size (panel b).
Figure 4 displays the predictive value of mitotic count (panel a) and tumor size (panel b) for one-year cancer-specific survival using the ROC-methodology.
