title: The significant prognostic value of circulating tumor cells in triple-negative breast cancer: a meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The clinical validity of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is still controversial in patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).
  
  
  METHODS
  A comprehensive literature search was performed to identify relevant articles in the PubMed, Web of Science, MEDLINE, and Embase databases through September 2015. The outcomes of interest were disease progression and overall survival. The hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were considered the effect indicators and were pooled in meta-analyses under a fixed- or random-effect model according to heterogeneity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ten of the eligible studies were included for a total of 642 enrolled TNBC patients. Overall analyses revealed that the presence of CTCs predicted aggressive disease progression (HR = 2.18, 95% CI = 1.59-2.99, Pheterogeneity = 0.010, I2 = 52.2%) and reduced overall survival (HR = 2.02, 95% CI = 1.59-2.57, Pheterogeneity = 0.169, I2 = 26.6%). Further subgroup analyses demonstrated that CTC-positive patients also had poor disease progression and overall survival in different subsets, including cancer stage.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our meta-analysis provides strong evidence that detection of CTC in the peripheral blood is an independent prognosticator of poor survival outcomes for TNBC patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Yan-Jun
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Institute and Department of Infectious Disease, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Xiong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Yao-Wu
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D002452:Cell Count; D018450:Disease Progression; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D064726:Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology
keywords: circulating tumor cells (CTCs); prognosis; triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)