Fig. 2: Follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) exhibits intratumoral lymphoid exclusion and myeloid predominance.

A Hematoxylin and eosin (HE)-stained image of FTC including the area of minimal capsular invasion. Scale bar = 2 mm. FTC and adjacent normal tissues were divided into six areas as shown in the schematic diagram which corresponds to the HE-stained image. Quantitative evaluation of each immune cell was performed using image cytometry in the discovery cohort (n = 13). The detailed method is shown in Supplementary Fig. 1. The percentage of each immune cell to CD45⁺ cells in each area is shown in the heat map. B The percentages of each immune cell to CD45⁺ cells were shown in a violin plot, comparing extratumoral regions including adjacent normal (AN) and peritumoral stroma (PS) and intratumoral regions including subcapsular region (SC) and tumor center (TC). (C–E) Percentages of lymphoid lineages including CD8⁺ T cells, helper T cells, regulatory T cells, B cells, and natural killer cells (C) as well as myeloid lineages including tumor-associated macrophages, CD66⁺ granulocytes, mature dendritic cells, and mast cells (D) to CD45⁺ cells, and ratios of lymphoid to myeloid cell lineages (E) were shown, comparing AN, PS, SC, and TC regions. Dots in violin plots present each case, and vertical bars present median, and interquartile ranges. Statistical differences in (B–E) were determined via Wilcoxon signed-rank tests with false discovery rate (FDR) adjustments, with *P < 0.05.