Fig. 2: Lifestyle factors in EOCRC versus LOCRC tumors.
From: Epigenetic fingerprints link early-onset colon and rectal cancer to pesticide exposure
a–d, Lifestyle-related MRS differed between EOCRC and LOCRC, including non-Mediterranean dietary patterns MRS-GW (marker threshold P < 1.2 × 10−7) (a), lower education levels MRS-GW (b), higher smoking exposure (smoking-Maas) (c) and lower obesity rates MRS-P1E5 (marker threshold P < 1.0 × 10−5) (d) in patients with EOCRC. The heatmaps (left) display epigenetic age-adjusted DNA methylation beta-values in TCGA-COAD, ordered by MRS; the top color bar indicates CpG effect direction in the original EWAS (red: positive; blue: negative). The boxplots (middle) show MRS distribution in patients with EOCRC (N = 31) and LOCRC (N = 100) in TCGA-COAD, stratified by sex (orange: female; purple: male). The forest plots (right) present sex-adjusted logistic regression results for each replication dataset, their meta-analysis (Replication), and combined with TCGA-COAD (Discovery and Replication), for colon (blue), rectal (purple) and CRC (red). Squares: ORs; horizontal lines: 95% CIs. Boxplots show median (center line), interquartile range (IQR) (box) and whiskers (1.5× IQR) and outliers.
