Significance of Glioma Stem-Like Cells in the Tumor Periphery That Express High Levels of CD44 in Tumor Invasion, Early Progression, and Poor Prognosis in Glioblastoma

Figure 8

(a) Relationship between the P/C ratio for CD44 expression and tumor invasiveness as seen on MRI. Patients with a high P/C ratio showed a significant, more highly invasive type on MRI than those with a low P/C ratio (, t-test). (b) Relationship between the level of CD44 mRNA expression in the tumor periphery and tumor invasiveness as seen on MRI. The level of CD44 mRNA expression in the tumor periphery did not correlate with invasiveness on MRI (, t-test). (c) Relationship between the level of VEGF mRNA expression in the tumor periphery and tumor invasiveness as seen on MRI. The low invasive type on MRI tended to have higher amounts of VEGF expression in the tumor periphery (, t-test). (d, e) Kaplan-Meier survival curves for the P/C ratio for CD44 expression predicting PFS (d) and OS (e). Patients with a high P/C ratio for CD44 expression showed significantly earlier tumor progression and worse survival than those with a low P/C ratio ( and 0.0215, respectively, log-rank test).

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