Fig. 1

IGF-1R expression is associated with bone metastasis of NPC. a Pattern plot of BM3 cells obtained, time of formation of bone metastatic lesions in each cell lines, representative BLIs of BM3 bone metastasis formation. b Volcano plot showing significantly altered genes (upregulation or downregulation with fold-change > 8, p < 0.05) in BM3 compared to 5-8F. c IGF-1R protein and mRNA levels in 5-8F and BM3 cell lines. d Expression and survival analysis of IGF-1R in a cohort study of head and neck squamous cell (HNSC) cancer patients in the TCGA database. IGF-1R expression in patients with and without distant metastases in the GSE180272 dataset. e IGF-1R expression in paired normal and cancer tissues from the same patient. f IGF-1R expression in metastatic and non-metastatic primary NPC tumors. g IGF-1R expression in primary NPC tumors metastatic to bone or other organs. h Overall survival and bone metastasis–free survival analyses of the patients according to different IGF-1R expression status. i Representative images and quantitation of IGF-1R immunostaining in primary NPC tumors and bone metastases from the same patient. j IGF-1R mRNA levels in primary NPC tumors and bone metastases from the same patients. (“ns” indicates P > 0.05, “*” represents P < 0.05, “**” represents P < 0.01,“***” represents P < 0.001 and “****” represents P < 0.0001, Scar bar = 50 μm.)