Circulating tumor cells: a valuable marker of poor prognosis for advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

ABSTRACT: PURPOSE:To evaluate the prognostic value of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). METHODS:Cox's proportional hazards regression models were used to identify whether CTCs was a poor prognostic factor for NPC. Chi-square tests were used to analyze and compare the distribution characteristics of CTCs in NPC. ROC curve was used to estimate the cut-off point of CTCs. Kaplan-Meier survival analyses were used to observe the prognostic value of CTCs alone and in combined with Epstein-Barr Virus DNA (EBV-DNA). RESULTS:CTCs was confirmed to be an independent risk factor for poor prognosis of NPC by Cox's regression models that enrolled 370 NPC cases and took age, gender, EBV-DNA and CTCs as variables. The proportion of CTCs in stage IV NPC was statistically different from

SUBMITTER: Ou G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6858770 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature