Figure 2.

Telomere length at different clinical stages compared with controls.

Notes: The telomere lengths in T-cells from patients with lung cancer and healthy controls were compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. (A) The patients were divided into early-stage group (stages I and II) and advanced-stage group (stages III and IV). The early- (P=0.016) and advanced-stage (P<0.001) patients had T-cells with significantly shorter telomere lengths than the controls. (B) The telomere lengths in the patients with lung AC (P<0.001) and SCC (P=0.001) were both shorter than those in the controls; however, the difference between the two patient groups was not statistically significant (P=0.407). All tests were two-sided; P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Abbreviations: AC, adenocarcinoma; SCC, squamous cell carcinoma.