Fig. 5: Validation of YWHAZ and NDRG1 as risk stratification genes in PCa patients (TCGA-PRAD, n = 499; Ross-Adams, GSE70770, n = 206; and Jenkins, GSE10645, n = 596).

a, c, f Heatmaps depicting low (blue) or high (red) NDRG1 and YWHAZ gene expression for patients with PCa according to the TCGA-PRAD (a), Ross-Adams (c), and Jenkins (f) data sets. Patient subgroups are presented in black boxes: low YWHAZ and NDRG1 expression (1), high NDRG1 expression (2), and high YWHAZ expression (3). b, d, g Kaplan–Meier curves for DSS (TCGA-PRAD) (b), RFS (Ross-Adams) (d), and DSS (Jenkins) (g), for PCa patients segregated based on gene expression levels for YWHAZ and NDRG1. e, h Kaplan–Meier curves for RFS (Ross-Adams) (e) and DSS (Jenkins) (h), for PCa patients segregated based on gene expression levels for YWHAZ and NDRG1 in GS 7. P = pairwise log-rank P-values. i, j Time-dependent AUC curves measured from 36 to 180 months reflecting the performance of GS (blue), NDRG1 (i) or YWHAZ (j) (red), and NDRG1 + GS (i) or YWHAZ + GS (j) (green) in PCa patients. AUC = area under the ROC curve. P = P-value for DeLong’s test for two ROC curves. GS = Gleason score. All comparisons consider low expression patients as the reference group. Statistical significance was set at P ≤ 0.05.