FIGURE 7.

Discovery of protein markers with prognostic value. (A) Total of 66 DEPs with positive correlation to HRs of disease relapse and death were identified. For these prognostic proteins, their 95% confidential intervals of HRs of relapse or death are illustrated. HRs >1 correspond to an increased risk of death/relapse compared with the lower abundance of proteins, while HRs <1 correspond to a reduced risk of death/relapse compared with the lower abundance of proteins. (B) KEGG pathway analysis showing that 118 proteins with prognostic potential are enriched in pathways (p < .05), including phagosome, complement and coagulation cascades, p53 signaling pathway, and fructose and mannose metabolism. Each node represents a pathway, with node size reflecting pathway enrichment significance. (C) Expression direction (tumor/NAT) between 66 proteins with prognostic potential and their corresponding mRNAs. Twenty‐three of these proteins that are out of the dashed quadrilateral reveal consistent expression direction with their corresponding mRNAs, whereas the remaining proteins that are highlighted by the dashed quadrilateral display inconsistent expression direction with their corresponding mRNAs. (D) For the 14 genes with increased expression at both mRNA and protein levels in human ESCC tumors shown in (C), their mRNA transcription was analyzed in esophageal tissues of ESCC and control mice. Three of these genes are significantly upregulated in esophageal tissues of ESCC mice. ^* p < .05, ^*** p < .001, two‐tailed Student's t‐test