Fig. 4

Intra-tumor heterogeneity is maintained in multicellular clusters in ascites. a Immunofluorescence images of primary tumor, ascites, and peritoneal wall metastases stained for E-cadherin. b Quantification of E-cadherin-positive areas in primary, ascites, and peritoneal wall metastases, n = 6; p > 0.05; error bars, s.d. E-cadherin-positive regions were classified as having >50% circumferential E-cadherin immunoreactivity surrounding each cell and were pan-cytokeratin positive. Regions were considered E-cadherin negative when two or more adjacent cells had no detectable or incomplete (<50%) circumferential E-cadherin and regions were pan-cytokeratin positive. c Immunofluorescence images of tumor sections stained for E-cadherin and pan-cytokeratin. d Immunofluorescence images of tumor sections stained for E-cadherin and Vimentin. S indicates Vimentin-positive stroma. White dotted lines show boundaries between E-cad⁺ and E-cad⁻ populations