Extended Data Fig. 3: Progression-free survival analysis in patients with breast cancer and in mouse models.
From: Neutrophils escort circulating tumour cells to enable cell cycle progression
a, Kaplan–Meier progression-free survival analysis comparing patients with one or more CTC–neutrophil cluster per 7.5 ml of peripheral blood (n = 9) versus all patients with no CTC–neutrophil clusters (n = 48). P value by two-sided log-rank test is shown. b, Kaplan–Meier PFS analysis comparing patients with one or more CTC–neutrophil cluster per 7.5 ml of peripheral blood (n = 9) versus patients with one or more CTC per 7.5 ml of peripheral blood but no CTC–neutrophil clusters (n = 21). P value by two-sided log-rank test is shown. c, Kaplan–Meier PFS analysis comparing patients with one or more CTC–neutrophil cluster per 7.5 ml of peripheral blood (n = 9), patients with one or more single CTC per 7.5 ml of peripheral blood but without CTC–neutrophil clusters (n = 14), and patients with one or more CTC cluster per 7.5 ml of peripheral blood but without CTC–neutrophil clusters (n = 7). P value by two-sided log-rank test is shown. Of note, these results are consistent with our previous observations whereby PFS differences in patients with single CTCs versus CTC–clusters were visible only when CTC clusters were present for multiple time points along disease progression. d, Schematic of the experimental design. One hundred CTCs from CTC–neutrophil clusters, CTC clusters or single CTCs are injected in the tail vein of tumour-free recipient mice to measure their metastatic potential. e, Plot showing normalized bioluminescence signal from the lungs of injected mice. n = 5 for all, error bars, s.e.m., ∗P < 0.05 by two-sided Student’s t-test. f, Kaplan–Meier plot showing overall survival of injected mice. n = 5 for all, P values by two-sided log-rank test are shown. g, Representative image of a metastatic lesion in NSG mice injected intravenously with either with CTC–neutrophil clusters, CTC clusters or single CTCs from NSG-BR16-GFP mice. Metastases are stained for pan-cytokeratin (pCK, green) and DAPI (nuclei, blue) (left). The plot shows the mean number of metastatic foci per field of view (right). n = 3; error bars, s.e.m.; P values by two-sided Student’s t-test are shown. h, Representative image of a metastatic lesion in the lungs of BALB/c mice injected intravenously with either with CTC–neutrophil clusters, CTC clusters or single CTCs from BALB/c-4T1-GFP mice. Metastases are stained for pan-cytokeratin (pCK, green) and DAPI (nuclei; blue) (left). The plot shows the mean number of metastatic foci per field of view (right). n = 3; error bars, s.e.m.; P values two-sided Student’s t-test are shown.
