Fig. 2: Effect of chemoradiotherapy on subtyping and survival patterns.
From: Identification of unique rectal cancer-specific subtypes
a Sankey plots of the CMS shift after radiotherapy (GSE56699 study, upper plot) and after chemotherapy (GSE94104, lower Sankey plot) point to a significant shift in subtypes after CRT. Neoadjuvant therapy in rectal cancers causes a mesenchymal transition in molecular subtypes. Tumour regression grades in the GSE94104 study represent: ‘Minimal’: “TRG1 - Minor Regression”; ‘Moderate’: “Significant Regression”; NearTotal: “Small Tumour Left”. TRG classes in the GSE56699 study were: ‘Total’: “TRG 1 (Mandard): Complete Response, No tumour”; ‘Minimal: “TRG 4 (Mandard): Residual Tumour > Fibrosis”; ‘Moderate’: “TRG 3 (Mandard): Fibrosis > Residual Tumour. b Kaplan–Meier plots for colon vs pre-treatment naïve rectal cancer samples in different CMS subgroups show a significant difference between colon and rectal cancers in the CMS4 subtype. Overall rectal cancers have better disease-free survival than colons except for CMS3.
