Table 2. The immunohistochemical scoring of the EMT-related proteins.

	0	1+	2+	3+
E-cadherin	No stain	Weak and/or faint stain	Partial and moderate membranous stain	Strong membranous stain
β-Catenin	Absence of nuclear stain	Nuclear stain <10%	Nuclear stain 10%-50%	Nuclear stain ≧50%
Claudin-1	No stain	Weak and/or faint stain	Partial and moderate membranous stain	Complete and strong membranous stain
CD44	No stain or weak/faint stain <10%	Partial membranous stain <30% or weak/faint stain ≧10%	Complete membranous stain <30% or partial membranous stain ≧30%	Complete membranous stain ≧30%
N-cadherin	No stain	Weak and/or faint stain	Partial and moderate membranous stain	Complete and strong membranous stain
Fibronectin	No stain or weak/faint stain <10%	Partial membranous stain <30% or weak/faint stain ≧10%	Complete membranous stain <30% or partial membranous stain ≧30%	Complete membranous stain ≧30%
Vimentin	No stain	Cytoplasmic stain <10%	Cytoplasmic stain 10%-50%	Cytoplasmic stain ≧50%
S100A4	No stain or weak/faint stain <10%	Partial membranous stain <30% or weak/faint stain ≧10%	Complete membranous stain <30% or partial membranous stain ≧30%	Complete membranous stain ≧30%

The immunohistochemical expression of the eight EMT-related proteins was semi-quantitatively scored into 0, 1+, 2+, and 3+.