In their study on the prognostic relevance of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in breast cancer follow-up in the phase III SUCCESS A trial, Trapp et al. (1) report that patients with CTCs 2 years after chemotherapy have an increased risk of relapse and death as compared with patients without CTCs. However, as we summarize in Table 1 following a partial re-analysis of the data by Trapp et. al., some issues need consideration. The predictive value of CTC classification at 40 months after 2 years from the end of chemotherapy was estimated by Kaplan-Meier plots and reported in Table 1. The standard error of survival distribution was calculated using the formula reported by Altman et al. (2). Restricted mean survival time at 40 months (ie, the mean disease-free survival time up to 40 months) was estimated assuming uniform risk of relapse in the time interval 0–40 months, RMST₄₀. According to Figures 2B and 3B of the article, we considered the time interval 0–40 months because we aimed to analyze the longest amount of patient time, the numbers of patients at risk were reported, and survival curves were still stable.

中文翻译：

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RE：高危早期乳腺癌在随访和预后过程中存在循环肿瘤细胞。

Trapp等人在他们对循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）在乳腺癌的III期随访中的预后相关性研究中进行了研究。（1）报告说，与未使用CTC的患者相比，化疗后2年使用CTC的患者复发和死亡的风险增加。但是，正如我们在表1中总结的，在Trapp等人对数据进行了部分重新分析之后。al。，一些问题需要考虑。通过Kaplan-Meier曲线估算了从化疗结束2年后40个月时CTC分类的预测价值，并在表1中进行了报告。生存率分布的标准误使用Altman等人的报告公式计算。（2）。平均生存时间限制为40个月（即，₄₀。根据本文的图2B和3B，我们考虑了0-40个月的时间间隔，因为我们旨在分析最长的患者时间，报告了有风险的患者人数，并且生存曲线仍然稳定。