Fig. 1.

Moderate-to-strong FGFR3 immunostaining was predictive of poor patient survival in ependymomas. a Representative staining images. b Distribution of FGFR3 immunostaining in grade I–III ependymomas. FGFR3 immunostaining was positively associated with tumor grade (p < 0.01, Fisher’s exact test). c Moderate-to-strong FGFR3 immunostaining was associated with cerebral tumor location (p < 0.0001, Fisher’s exact test). Total number of tumors for each location is marked into the figure. d Moderate-to-strong FGFR3 expression was more common in younger patients (p < 0.05, Fisher’s exact test). Only newly-diagnosed cases were included in the analysis and these were divided into those with negative-to-weak vs. moderate-to-strong FGFR3 immunostaining. e Cases with moderate-to-strong FGFR3 expression tended to have higher proliferation index (p = 0.07, Fisher’s exact test). Samples were divided based on FGFR3 staining and proliferation rate (1: low, 2: intermediate, and 3: high proliferation index). f-g Moderate-to-strong FGFR3 immunostaining was associated with worse g) disease-specific survival (N = 73, p < 0.05, log-rank test) and g) recurrence-free survival (N = 70, p < 0.01, log-rank test). Only newly-diagnosed cases were included into the analysis