Fig. 6. Validation of histopathological biomarker scoring in patient datasets.

a,b, Representative DAB stainings of blood vessels (a) and TAM (b) in tumour tissues obtained from patients with breast, lung and head and neck (H&N) cancer (all data in this figurre are based on tumour resections, and the data based on biopsies are shown in Supplementary Fig. 7). c,d, Quantification of blood vessels (c) and TAM (d) in ten patient samples for each tumour type (no., number per field of view; significance is indicated in P values based on Student’s t-test). e, Tumour accumulation of ¹¹¹In-labelled PEGylated liposomes in patients with breast, lung and head and neck (H&N) cancer (in percentage of the injected dose per kilogram tumour). The data are replotted based on the work in ref. ²⁷ (significance is indicated in P values based on Student’s t-test). f, Means of blood vessel and TAM product scores plotted against means of liposome tumour targeting, showing that biomarker product scoring correctly identifies breast cancers as poorly nanomedicine accumulating lesions. The error bars indicate the distribution of %ID and product score values (standard deviations on the x-axis and minima and maxima on the y-axis; n = 3–10 as it is based on the means of c, d and e).