Volume 138, Issue 5, Pages 1714-1726.e13 (May 2010) Meta-analysis Shows That Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells Indicates Poor Prognosis in Patients With Colorectal Cancer  Nuh N. Rahbari, Maximilian Aigner, Kristian Thorlund, Nathan Mollberg, Edith Motschall, Katrin Jensen, Markus K. Diener, Markus W. Büchler, Moritz Koch, Jürgen Weitz  Gastroenterology  Volume 138, Issue 5, Pages 1714-1726.e13 (May 2010) DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2010.01.008 Copyright © 2010 AGA Institute Terms and Conditions

Figure 1 Selection of studies. Gastroenterology 2010 138, 1714-1726.e13DOI: (10.1053/j.gastro.2010.01.008) Copyright © 2010 AGA Institute Terms and Conditions

Figure 2 Summary estimates of hazard ratio (HR) for (A) disease recurrence and (B) death associated with hematogenous tumor cell detection. RFS, recurrence-free survival; OS, overall survival. Note: Three studies reported cancer-related survival (CRS) instead of OS.17,20,39 Sensitivity analysis excluding these studies did not change the results significantly (HR = 2.44 [95% CI: 1.60–3.74], n = 18, I2 = 67%). Gastroenterology 2010 138, 1714-1726.e13DOI: (10.1053/j.gastro.2010.01.008) Copyright © 2010 AGA Institute Terms and Conditions

Figure 3 Summary estimates of hazard ratio (HR) for disease recurrence and death associated with tumor cell detection in the (A and D) peripheral blood, (B and E) mesenteric/portal blood, and (C and F) bone marrow compartment. RFS, recurrence-free survival; OS, overall survival. Note: Two studies in the analysis of peripheral blood (D) reported cancer-related survival (CRS) instead of OS.17,20 Sensitivity analysis excluding these studies did not change the results significantly (HR = 2.73 [95% CI: 1.68–4.45], n = 14, I2 = 63%). Gastroenterology 2010 138, 1714-1726.e13DOI: (10.1053/j.gastro.2010.01.008) Copyright © 2010 AGA Institute Terms and Conditions