Prognostic Value of Homotypic Cell Internalization by Nonprofessional Phagocytic Cancer Cells

Figure 3

Cell-in-cell events compared to apoptotic events and prognostic impact of cell-in-cell events. (a) E-cadherin and cleaved caspase-3-labeled tumor sections containing CIC structures. (b) Frequency of CIC structures compared with the frequency of apoptotic cells in the central tumor area and invasive front of HNSCC. (c) CIC frequency compared to apoptotic cells in pretherapeutic biopsies and in posttherapeutic tumor resections of HNSCC. The shaded area marks tissues containing more CIC/mm² than apoptotic cells/mm². (d) Immunofluorescence staining for E-cadherin and cleaved caspase-3 in the left panel and Ki-67 and CD68 in the right panel. Nuclei were stained with DAPI.

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