Fig. 4

USP21 is amplified and correlates with poor survival in HCC. a Relative expression of 72 DUBs in HCC, based on TCGA RNA-sequencing data. Expression was normalized to non-tumor tissue and is expressed as Log2 mean. USP21 is indicated in red. b Relative gene copy number change (mean, Log2) of 80 DUBs in HCC, relative to non-tumor tissue, based on TCGA data. USP21 is indicated in red. c Correlation between copy number variation and USP21 expression change in tumor compared to non-tumor tissue, based on TCGA data from a and b. d USP21 expression correlates with poor survival. Left panel: relative USP21 expression levels in the LCI cohort of 488 patient samples in HCC and non-tumor tissue, based on microarray data from²⁶. Right panel: Kaplan-Meier survival analysis of the same patients, separated by USP21 expression. USP21 low reflects the bottom 50 percent, USP21 high the top 50 percent of patients. e Frequencies of somatic copy number alteration (SCNAs, Log2) are plotted as a function of genome location for the clinical specimen from d, separated in USP21 high or low groups. Chromosome boundaries and centromere position are indicated by vertical solid and dashed lines, respectively. Horizontal dashed blue lines indicate frequencies of >±0.5 (Log2). Unless noted otherwise, p values are based on Student’s two-tailed t-test