Fig. 2: Transcriptional profiling of CTCs released from pancreatic cancer reveals three major correlated gene sets and the largest is enriched in LIN28B and KLF4.
From: Pancreatic circulating tumor cell profiling identifies LIN28B as a metastasis driver and drug target
a Hierarchical clustered correlation matrix of all genes detected in either locPDAC or metPDAC CTCs. b Hierarchical clustering of PDAC by sample utilizing the major genes driving each correlation subgroup from (a). c Kaplan–Meier curves showing overall survival for PDAC patients stratified based on CTC RNA expression of LIN28B, WNT5A, and LGALS3; “high” denotes highest quartile and “low” bottom 3 quartiles. *p = 0.021 by Gehan–Breslow–Wilcoxon test, n = 25 in the “low” group and 10 in the “high” group. d Log-log scatter plot and linear correlation of the sum of MUC3A/4/16/17 and LIN28B mRNA (RPM) in CTCs purified from patients with locPDAC and metPDAC. *p = 0.004 by least squares linear regression, n = 35. e Immunofluorescent images of a leukocyte (top row), LIN28B-low CTC (middle row), and LIN28B-high CTC (bottom row) from a separate cohort of patients with metastatic PDAC. Scale bar = 10 mm. This experiment was not repeated but showed consistent results in the specimens used.
