Fig. 1

Expression of CXCL1, CD177 and LCN2 in prostate tissues and correlation with biochemical recurrence free survival in prostate cancer cases. a Representative images (magnification 200X) of CXCL1 (a~c), CD177 (d~f) and LCN2 (g~i) expression in normal prostate tissues, cancerous lesion and para-carcinoma tissue (PCT). Red arrows: tumor foci; yellow arrows: prostate stroma. b Representative images (magnification 200X) of AMACR (red, expressed in carcinoma epithelium), CK18 (white, expressed in prostate glandular epithelium), CXCL1 (cyan) and LCN2 (orange) co-staining in normal prostate tissues, carcinoma tissue and PCT observed by PerkinElmer Tyramide Signal Amplification system. c Semi-quantitative data of CXCL1, LCN2 and CD177 expression in normal prostate (n = 19) and prostate cancer (n = 118) are shown in scatter plots. p value was determined by Mann–Whitney test, asterisks indicate *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001. d Kaplan-Meier and log-rank test were used to evaluate CXCL1 expression alone (a) or CXCL1-LCN2 co-expression (b) and biochemical recurrence free survival. High expression level of CXCL1 (CXCL1 High vs. Negative expression p < 0.001) and high co-expression of CXCL1-LCN2 (High-High/High-Medium vs. Negative/Low/Medium expression p < 0.0001) predicted early biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy