ABCG5-positivity in tumor buds is an indicator of poor prognosis in node-negative colorectal cancer patients

Figure 1 Study design.

Figure 2 Immunohistochemical expression of putative cancer stem cell markers by tumor buds in colorectal cancer. A: Cytokeratin 22 staining highlighting the presence of tumor buds in low power magnification (5 ×); B-I: 40 × magnification. Positive expression of ABCG5 (B), ALDH1 (C), and EpCAM (D) in tumor buds with scattered positive staining of stromal cells, absence of staining of CD133 in tumor buds with positive staining of stromal cells (E), positive expression of CD166 in tumor buds with occasional positivity of stromal cells (F), absence of CD24 (G), CD44s (H), and CD90 staining (I) in tumor buds with positive stromal cell expression.

Figure 3 Histogram showing the number of cases with any degree of positive staining for the 8 putative stem cells markers.

Figure 4 Kaplan-Meier survival curves illustrating the prognostic differences in patients with or without positive staining of EpCAM (A) and positive staining of ABCG5 (B) in tumor buds; differences in prognosis are further analyzed for lymph node-negative patients differing in EpCAM (C) and ABCG5 (D) expression in tumor buds.