Figure 3.

Survival curves against the established traditional prognostic risk factors affecting survival validate the CRC patient cohort for analyzing promising new biomarkers. The cohort consisted of 180 CRC patients, of whom 67 were alive, 31 were dead, and 90 were lost to follow-up. To validate the cohort for survival analysis, overall survival is analyzed against several established factors affecting survival in CRC patients using Kaplan-Meier method. A. Panel TNM staging describes a typical survival hierarchy that patients with the earliest stage I have the best survival while patients with the latest stages III+IV show the poorest survival. B. Panel Hazard Function shows that patients with the latest stage III+IV show highest risk of death while earliest stage I has the lowest risk of death. TNM staging was determined according to the AJCC TNM staging system. C. Kaplan-Meier survival analyses of patients with low VDR expression and those with high expression. CRC patients with low VDR expression (IS < 4) show a significantly lower survival rate after surgery compared to those with high VDR expression (IS ≥ 4) (P < 0.05). D. Patients with high VDR expression present lower risk of death compared to those with low VDR expression (P < 0.05).