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. 2023 Sep 15;133(18):e159181. doi: 10.1172/JCI159181

Figure 2. Expression of ColXVIII and routine BC biomarkers in human BC.

Figure 2

(A) Representative images of IHC staining for ColXVIII, EGFR, HER2, and Ki67 in sequential sections of HER2 subtype BC (n = 70, Supplemental Table 1). Scale bars: 200 μm. Arrow, vascular BM; black arrowheads, epithelial BM; white arrowheads, EGFR or HER2 signal on the plasma membrane. (B) Magnified regions indicated in A (original magnification, ×2 and ×3). (C) Heatmap showing IHC scores for ColXVIII and EGFR, HER2 and Ki67 status, and nuclear tumor grades for BC samples from the Uppsala/Umeå cohort, grouped by BC subtypes. Samples analyzed for each molecular subtype: HER2, n = 43; luminal B, n = 56; luminal A, n = 486; and TNBC, n = 45. IHC scores and nuclear grades are indicated in different colors. (D and E) Proportions of IHC scores for ColXVIII and EGFR in BC subtypes in the Uppsala/Umeå cohort. (F) Correlation between the ColXVIII and EGFR scores in the Uppsala/Umeå cohort, calculated using the Kendall rank correlation coefficient (Kendall Tau). In C–F, n = 630. (G) Kaplan-Meier plots showing OS (n = 630), RFS (n = 630), and disease-specific survival (DSS) (n = 444) for the Uppsala/Umeå cohort of patients with BC, stratified by cytoplasmic ColXVIII protein expression levels. HR and log-rank P values were computed using the ColXVIII IHC scores as thresholds for stratification. The initial number of patients in each group is indicated in the survival graphs.