Fig. 1: ATO inhibits HCC metastasis and prolongs survival in a mouse model.

a A schematic diagram for the ATO therapy experiment. i.p. indicates intraperitoneal injection. b–d The lung metastasis assay. b The mice were weighted every other day (n = 14 for the PBS group, n = 11 for the ATO group). P values were determined by multiple t-tests. c Gross observation of nodules in livers (left) and representative images of H&E-stained liver sections (right) from ATO-treated mice and PBS-treated mice in the therapeutic experiments. Yellow circles indicate orthotopic tumors; magnification, bars, 100 μm. d shows representative examples of lungs (left) and representative images of H&E-stained lung sections (middle) from nude mice treated with ATO or PBS. Arrowheads indicate lung metastases foci. Bars, 100 μm in ×100, 20 μm in ×400. The different lung sections (5 sections per lung) were randomly chosen from each group, and the foci were quantified as the average number across the total sections per group (right). P = 0.0453, determined by two-sided Student’s t-test. e The survival curve of nude mice treated with ATO (n = 44) or PBS (n = 44) (top). P = 0.0003, by log-rank (Mantel–Cox) test. Bottom: the median survival time. f Appearance of the mice treated with ATO or PBS