Table 4.

Cross correlation analyses reveal strong relationships among density of CD68 in tumor nest, tumor stroma and expression of MMP-9 in Kazakh ESCCs and CANs

	CD68 density in tumor nest	CD68 density in tumor stroma	MMP-9
ESCCs
CD68 density in tumor nest	1
CD68 density in tumor stroma	0.801*	1
MMP-9	0.359*	0.373*	1
CANs
CD68 density in epithelium	1
CD68 density in stroma	0.666*	1
MMP-9	-0.008	-0.049	1

Note: ESCCs: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma tussies. CANs: Cancer adjacent normal tissues. The numbers shown in the table are correlation coefficient r values. Spearman rank correlation analysis was used.

^*P<0.05.