Figure 2.

Constitutive expression of NCL in Schwannian-stroma poor NB patients at diagnosis and prognostic value of NCL expression. a) NCL protein expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry staining on formalin-fixed tumour sections (n = 11). Representative images ofINSS stage 1 (image 1), INSS stage 2 (image 2), INSS stage 3 (image 3) and INSS stage 4 (image 4) tumours, and of healthy liver (image 5).Brown: NCL expression. Bar: 60 μm. b) NCL intensity in INSS stages 1, 2, 3 and 4tumours. Column: mean ± standard deviation.c-d) Prognostic value of NCL expression in a cohort of 20 NB patients with INSS stage 4 tumour. Kaplan–Meier estimates and significance of the difference analysis based on NCL gene expression. Overall (c) and Event-free (d) survivalsof patients with high (above median) and low (below median)NCLexpression are shown. The median value of NCL expression was 0.4429. Curves were compared by log-rank test, and p values are reported. Each Kaplan–Meier plot reports the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). The number of subjects at risk is displayed under the Kaplan–Meier plots. (e-g) Mean and standard deviation plots of NCL in the populations defined by (e) age at diagnosis, (f) INSS stage, and (g) MYCN status of the MultiPlatform786 dataset (n = 786). Expression values were z-scored prior to any visualization. Significance of the difference between the means has been assessed by unpaired t test. A probability smaller than 0.05 was considered a statistically significant difference. P value and number of patients are shown on top of the plot.