Fig. 1: BTK overexpression correlates with advanced stage status and worse overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS) in NSCLC patients.

A Representative photos of immunohistochemical staining for BTK in lung adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma with cases of different stages. The alveoli tissues were used as the control for adenocarcinoma, while bronchi tissues were used as the control for squamous cell carcinoma. The enlarged view of the selected area was shown below. scale bar 25 μm B Increased BTK expression correlated significantly with tumor differentiation, maximum tumor size, lymph node (LN) metastatic status, and pathologic (P-)stage in NSCLC. C The 5-year OS and DFS rates were 67.5, 38.7, and 26.8%, 10.3% in BTK-low (n = 42) and BTK-high (n = 38) NSCLC patients, respectively (both p < 0.05). Q-score ≥ 8 indicated BTK-high and Q-score < 8 indicated BTK-low. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.