Fig. 1: Establishment of mouse cancer model for combination therapy resistance.

A The tumor growth curves of each mouse receiving combination therapy (n = 14) or control IgG treatment (n = 6) were measured every 4 days. B Representative image of tongue visible lesions in different groups. Scale bar, 2 mm. C Exemplary instances of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the head and neck from various groups. The dashed regions delineate the boundaries of the tumor. D Representative H&E staining of HNSCC and quantification of HNSCC invasion grades in different groups. n = 6 mice in control group, n = 6 mice in resistant group, n = 8 mice in sensitive group. Scale bar, 65 μm. Statistical significance was assessed using the Pearson chi-square test. P value is exact and two-sided. Representative IHC staining and IHC Score of Ki67 (E) and Caspase3 (F) in HNSCC. n = 6 mice in control group, n = 6 mice in resistant group, n = 8 mice in sensitive group. Scale bar, 65 μm. Data are represented as mean ± SD. P values were calculated one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. G The UMAP plot shows the outcomes post-unbiased clustering, delineating subpopulations of epithelial cell, fibroblast, endothelial cell, immune cell, and muscle cell, each color-coded to represent its cell type. Corresponding bar graphs on the right display the quantity of each subpopulation. H The distributions of the three groups, control, resistant, and sensitive group, are illustrated in the UMAP plot (left), along with the proportions of cells between the three groups (center), and the proportions of epithelial cell, fibroblast, endothelial cell, immune cell and muscle cell within these three groups of cells (right). Calculation method for the right figure: First, normalization of the proportion of each cell type was performed within each group, followed by the calculation of the proportion of each group within the cell type. Source data and exact p values are provided as a Source Data file.