Fig. 1.

Metastatic breast cancer patient phylogenetic analysis show that LN metastases efficiently metastasize to distant organs. a Distance ratios from metastatic breast cancer patient samples on a patient and b individual metastasis basis. c Bootstrap confidence estimates for each group of patient samples. d–f Representative patient phylogenetic trees showing examples of LN-met- mediated and g LN-met-independent patterns of spread. Light blue shading demarcates LN-containing clades, whereas dark blue shading demarcates distant metastasis clades. Overlapping shading indicates clades containing both LN and distant metastases, implicating a LN-mediated pattern of distant metastases. Boxed in metastasis are those displaying a LN-mediated pattern of spread