Fig. 1

Elevated cytoplasmic LIF and LIFR in NPC are correlated with poorer prognosis. a Representative images of LIF expression in adjacent normal epithelium and NPC tumor tissues. Scale bars, 20 μm. b Statistical analysis of cytoplasmic LIF expression in primary NPC tumor tissues and metastatic lesions. Analysis of cytoplasmic LIF expression in distinct metastatic lesions is shown (right). **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, chi-square test. c Kaplan–Meier survival curves of NPC patients based on IHC scores of cytoplasmic LIF expression. Metastasis-free survival (left). Recurrence-free survival (right). d Statistical analysis of LIFR expression in NPC tumor biopsies. **p < 0.01, chi-square test. e Kaplan–Meier survival analysis of NPC patients based on LIFR expression. Metastasis-free survival (left). Recurrence-free survival (right). f Analysis of correlation between cytoplasmic LIF and LIFR expression (Spearman’s correlation test). g Representative images of LIF and LIFR expression patterns in NPC tumor tissues. Scale bars, 50 μm. h Single nucleotide variations in NPC biopsy samples (n = 157). Circles are colored with respect to the corresponding mutation types. i LIF and LIFR expression in tumors from NPC patient carrying LIF signal peptide mutation (G20L). Scale bars, 50 μm