Figure 5

VEGFR3 and PLXNA1 PBMC gene expression associated with TNBC. (a) Log₁₀ VEGFR3 and (b) Log₁₀ PLXNA1 mean relative gene expression (±SEM), quantified by real-time PCR, were significantly upregulated in PBMCs from TNBC compared to non-TNBC cases. (c) ROC analysis for TNBC cases against other breast cancer molecular subtypes based on PBMC expression of Log₁₀ PLXNA1 (AUC = 0.777 ± 0.102, p = 0.012), (d) Log₁₀ VEGFR3 (AUC = 0.702 ± 0.093, p = 0.066) and (e) a combination of Log₁₀ PLXNA1 + Log₁₀ VEGFR3 (AUC = 0.777 ± 0.084, p = 0.012). Combining Log₁₀ VEGFR3 and Log₁₀ PLXNA1 expression improved the specificity of the test to 74.5% from 57.1% while maintaining the high sensitivity (85.7%) to differentiate TNBC cases from other molecular subtypes. Target gene expression levels normalized against GUSB gene expression and scaled to expression levels in healthy controls. p < 0.05 considered to indicate statistical significance. *p < 0.05, Independent samples t-test (a and b).