Fig. 5
Plasma redox imbalance, NETs, and metastasis in human cancer. a–g Pre-treatment and mid-treatment plasma samples from HNSCC patients who developed lung metastasis (Metastasis + ; n = 8) and matched control patients without metastasis (Metastasis –; n = 14) were analyzed for free thiol (a), and non-oxidized albumin (b) concentration. c Relationship between the concentration of plasma free thiol and non-oxidized albumin. The correlation between plasma free thiol and non-oxidized albumin was analyzed (n = 44, Pearson’s correlation coefficient test, R2 = 0.23, p = 0.001). d, e Kaplan–Meier analysis of lung metastasis-free survival in the entire cohort stratified by the median values of plasma free thiol (d), and non-oxidized albumin (e) concentration at mid-treatment (hazard ratio = 5.3 [95% CI 1.1–26.7] and 9.8 [95% CI 1.2–80.0], respectively; log-rank p = 0.023 and 0.009, respectively) (f, g) Plasma level of NETs (f) and CRP (g) in the HNSCC patient cohort stratified by the median values of non-oxidized albumin. The data are individual values with the mean ± s.d. (n = 11 in each group). *P < 0.05 by (a, b) repeated-measures ANOVA for split-plot designs and (f, g) Student’s t-test, NS not significant
