Fig. 1: PLXNB2 expression in breast tumors is associated with poor prognosis and enriched in CTC clusters. | Nature Communications

Fig. 1: PLXNB2 expression in breast tumors is associated with poor prognosis and enriched in CTC clusters.

From: Computational ranking identifies Plexin-B2 in circulating tumor cell clustering with monocytes in breast cancer metastasis

Fig. 1

a A schematic of an integrated ranking, Rscore, of proteins in breast tumors, cancer cells, and CTCs with tumor specificity and clinical association, using multiple MS proteomic databases The mathematical model of Rscore integrates individual ranks (\({r}_{i}\)) of each protein in (1) relative protein abundance, \({r}_{i}\)(pc), in multiple datasets (patient tumors, CTCs, and cell lines), (2) significance changes, \({r}_{i}\)(sc) in tumor specificity, including p-value, ratio or fold change, and absolute change, comparing TNBC voxels (laser capture microdissection) to normal adjacent tissues, and (3) clinical association, \({r}_{i}\)(ca) including p value and hazard ratio, with OS and DMFS among multiple datasets. The significance of \({r}_{i}\) is multiplied by its constant weight factor (\({c}_{i}\)) with the sum divided by n for an integrated Rscore and final top three candidates. Created in BioRender. Tong, F. (2025) https://BioRender.com/nea43wo. b Representative IHC images of PLXNB2high TNBC tumor and PLXNB2low normal breast tissue (adjacent to tumors) from a TNBC patient. c KM plot for OS of patients with all breast cancer in the Tang_2018 data set (n = 108) via Kaplan-Meier plotter, separated by the best cut-off value of PLXNB2 protein expression (4) in primary tumors to define high vs. low within the expression range (0-11). P values were calculated via the Cox-Mantel (log-rank) test. d KM plot for DMFS of patients with ER− breast cancer, divided by median cut-off of PLXNB2 mRNA expression using data from GEO, EGA, and TCGA, n = 218. P values were calculated using a log-rank test. e Schematic depicting the patient blood sample workflow for CTC analysis on CellSearch. f Representative CellSearch images of a homotypic PLXNB2+ CTC-CTC (CD45−CK+DAPI+) cluster, a heterotypic PLXNB2+ CTC-WBC (CD45+CK-DAPI+) cluster, and a single PLXNB2- CTC. Scale bar = 5 µm. g Portion (%) of PLXNB2+ CTCs in single CTCs in comparison with homotypic CTC clusters and heterotypic CTC-WBC clusters), respectively, analyzed via CellSearch as shown in (f), n = 41 patients. Data are presented as mean values +/- SD, P values reported are from two-sided unpaired t-tests unless specified. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

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