Figure 2: High RARA protein levels are correlated with poor outcome in ER-positive BC patients receiving adjuvant tamoxifen.

(a) RARA protein-level analysis by western blot on tumour homogenates from four matched pairs of patients. C denotes patients with more than 7 years of disease-free follow-up and R denotes patients with relapse within 2 years. See Supplementary Table S1 for patient characteristics. (b) RFS for patients in cohort I treated with adjuvant tamoxifen considering their expression of RARA and separated by median value. Determination of RARA was performed on tumour homogenates by ELISA. See Table 1 for patient characteristics. (c) RFS for patients in cohort II considering their expression of RARA. Determination of RARA was performed by IHC on TMAs. See Table 2 for patient characteristics. (d,e) Representative images of the IHC scoring of (d) negative and (f) positive samples. In negative cases, there was only weak reactivity in the peripheral parts of tumour strands, whereas in the positive cases, distinct reactivity was seen in the majority of tumour cells. Scale bars, 100 μm.