Figure 9.

Assessment of B-cell clonality in FFPE tissues and the association with the metastatic behavior of the tumor. B-cell clonality was assessed by analyzing DNA, extracted from FFPE tissues for IGH and IGKL rearrangements. On the basis of the variable “Top 10 clones, %” the B-cell repertoire was compared between NT specimens and CRC specimens (A), between specimen grouped based on the number of metastases (B), and between specimens grouped based on the size of the largest metastasis (C). Only samples with at least 30 productive templates were included in the analysis. Group differences were assessed by Mann-Whitney-U test. Significant results are indicated by asterisks: * (p < 0.05); ns, not significant. NT, non-tumorous tissue; CRC, colorectal cancer; IGH, Ig heavy chain; IGKL, Ig kappa, and lambda, FFPE, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded; ns, not significant.