Table 1.

Expression of proNGF in primary thyroid cancers and metastases, quantified by h-score of immunohistochemical staining.

	ProNGF Quantification (h-score)
	n	Primary Tumour	p-Value	n	Nodal Metastasis	p-Value
Overall	56	57 (42–84)		56	94 (50–147)	0.002 1
Age			0.96			0.32
<55 years	34	58 (43–89)		34	95 (57–122)
≥55 years	22	55 (32–77)		22	86 (46–123)
Sex			0.20			0.85
Male	21	71 (46–100)		21	96 (46–148)
Female	35	54 (40–71)		35	90 (51–146)
Histopathology			0.36			0.11
Papillary	53	58 (43–89)		53	96 (51–148)
Classical	27	54 (43–92)		27	106 (64–149)
Follicular-variant	26	60 (46–89)		26	70 (49–130)
Follicular	2	42 (23–60)		2	45 (30–60)
Anaplastic	1	32		1	67
Tumour size			0.02
Primary <4 cm	48	62 (45–96)
Primary ≥4 cm	8	38 (25–55)
Total lymph node <3 cm				44	105 (57–149)	0.02
Total lymph node ≥3 cm				12	59 (44–64)
Metastasis within node <2 mm				10	148 (94–175)	0.04
Metastasis within node ≥2 mm				46	82 (49–123)
Vascular invasion			0.32
Absent	35	56 (43–100)
Present	21	58 (43–68)
Extra-thyroidal extension			0.43
Absent	19	56 (45–106)
Present	37	58 (40–75)
AJCC TNM 8 Stage			0.005
I and II	46	63 (45–100)
III and IV	10	38 (23–54)
Nodal metastases (location)						0.004
Central neck only (N1a)				33	109 (64–152)
Central + lateral neck (N1b)				23	60 (40–96)
Timing of metastases						0.11
At time of primary tumour				49	99 (56–148)
>6 months from primary				7	57 (46–96)

The h-score is a digital quantification of immunohistochemistry intensity, with values ranging between 0 and 300, where higher values represent greater protein expression. Data are median (IQR), compared using the Mann-Whitney test. ¹ Comparison between Primary and Metastases. Other comparisons are within column.