Fig. 1

Immunohistochemical staining of EPB41L5 in primary tongue SCCs. a Specimens were immunohistochemically stained with polyclonal anti-EPB41L5 antibodies. Each tissue section was scored for staining intensity on a scale of 0–2, as described in Methods (H-score). A representative image for each staining is shown. Bars, 50 μm. b Patients were classified into two groups by the existence of lymph node metastasis. The H-score of each patient was plotted, and the t-test was performed. Black circles indicate patients without any adjuvant therapy. Black lines indicate the means. ***P < 0.001. c and d Patients with H-scores in the top 33% were classified into the “high expression” group, and the others into the “low expression” group. Kaplan-Meier curves were drawn regarding disease-free survival (c) and overall survival (d) of the patients. To evaluate the P-values of these analyses, the logrank test was performed