Fig. 1

High-level CTSL expression is strongly associated with a poor prognosis in breast cancer patients. (a) Representative images of H&E and CTSL staining of breast cancer tissue. Dashed lines: interface between breast tumor (T) and adjacent non-tumor (N) tissues. Scale bar: 100 μm. N = 8. (b) Quantification of CTSL expression in breast tumor tissue and normal tissue using ImageJ. (c, d) mRNA expression of CTSL in breast cancer and normal tissue according to the breast cancer datasets GSE5364 (c, N = 13 and T = 183) and GSE 3744 (d, N = 7 and T = 40). (e, f) Kaplan–Meier analysis of OS (e) and RFS (f) in breast cancer patients divided into high and low CTSL groups (HR: hazard ratio).