Table 3. Comparison of the effects on tumorigenicity and the microenvironment of inhibiting different fibroblast-secreted factors.

Cal51+shHFFF2	Control	shAREG	shCCL2	shCCL8	shCCL7	shSTC1
Area under curve
Mean	1	0.37	0.27	0.58	0.26	0.60
SEM	0.01	0.03	0.02	0.02	0.03	0.03
pval		<0.01	<0.01	<0.01	<0.01	0.01
Endpoint tumor volume
Mean	1	0.41	0.43	0.71	0.34	0.89
SEM	0.01	0.02	0.03	0.03	0.03	0.04
p value		<0.01	<0.01	0.04	<0.01	0.46
Tumor microenvironment
Proliferation	1	0.91	0.95	0.93	0.58	NA
p value		0.06	0.35	0.43	<0.01
Immune cells	1	0.81	0.33	0.52	1.11	NA
p value		0.14	<0.01	<0.01	0.34
Blood vessels	1	0.88	0.44	1	0.85	NA
p value		0.24	<0.01	0.98	0.11
Mesenchymal cells	1	0.17	0.77	0.63	0.78	NA
p value		<0.01	0.08	0.051	0.11

Summary of results obtained from tumorigenicity assays and immunohistochemical characterization of the tumor microenvironment in AREG, CCL2, CCL7, CCL8 and STC1 silenced tumors compared to non-target control. Three major parameters, namely total area under the curve (AUC), endpoint tumor volume (week 6 post injection) and immunohistochemistry of tumor microenvironment were used to quantify differences between the control and experimental groups.