Fig. 8: The N1-to-N2 chemoattractant ratio is a predictive biomarker of metastatic dormancy, low tumor aggressiveness, and survival advantage for breast cancer.

a A positive correlation of the CXCL1-to-S100A8 ratio in MNs with the potential of metastatic dormancy in animal models of breast cancer. Scaffolds and lungs derived from animal models of different breast cancers were compared in terms of the expression of Cxcl1 and S100a8 genes in unsorted niche cells and their ratios (left panel), the abundance of CXCL1 and S100A8 proteins in the conditioned media and their ratios (middle panel), and the frequencies of CXCL1⁺ and S100A8⁺ cells in unsorted niche cells and their ratios (right panel). b Kaplan–Meier curves displaying the survival probability of patients with grade 1, 2, or 3 breast cancers. p values are from Mantel-Cox test. c The values of the Cxcl1-to-S100a8 gene expression ratio in breast cancers with different grades. p values are from student’s two-tailed t test. d Kaplan–Meier curves displaying the survival probability of breast cancer patients with a low (black) or high (red) value of the expression ratio of genes for N1 chemoattractants (Cxcl1 or Cxcl2 or Cxcl5) to genes for N2 chemoattractants (S100a8 or S100a9) at the primary tumor site. HR: hazard ratio; n = number of patients with available clinical data. p values are from Mantel-Cox test. Data for (b), (c), and (d) was retrieved from an online database⁶⁰. Data are shown as Mean ± SEM. n = 3 for (a). In (b) and (c), n = 396 for grade 1, n = 1174 for grade 2, and n = 1286 for grade 3. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.