Figure 4. High BCSCs in primary tumor correlates with the inflammatory tumor microenvironment (A). A total of 19 genes were commonly overexpressed by cancer cells and stromal cells, whereas seven genes were exclusively over-expressed by stromal cells and cancer cells. Only one gene, SNAI1, was found to be significantly under-expressed in the stromal cell compartment. (B) Expression profiles of hypoxia-related genes in cancer cells and stromal cells in Hi-BCSC tumors versus Lo-BCSC tumors. (C) Correlation of BCSCs percentage with gene expression of ECM genes: Lumican and Periostin. (D) Correlation of BCSCs percentage with gene expression of VEGFA (E) Correlation of inflammatory cytokines (TNFα, IL6, IL8) with BCSC expansion. The Spearman correlation test evaluated the correlation. p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.