Fig. 1

Caspase-4 positive NSCLC patients show poor survival rate. Higher levels of tumor caspase-4 were detected histologically (n = 89) (a), by means of RT-PCR (n = 8) (b) and western blotting (n = 9) (c). Representative blots are shown for immunohistochemistry (a). Healthy tissues represent the non-cancerous tissues obtained after surgical resection of tumor areas. d Quantitative analysis of western blotting data. The levels of caspase-4 were related to the TNM stage (e) of NSCLC patients. f Survival rate of stage I NSCLC patients who presented > or < levels of caspase-4 according to the cut-off = 377 pg/ml; g Survival rate of stage II NSCLC patients who presented > or < levels of caspase-4 according to the cut-off = 0.377 ng/ml; h Survival rate of stage III NSCLC patients who presented > or < levels of caspase-4 according to the cut-off = 377 pg/ml. Levels of IL-1β (i) and IL-1α (j) in lung homogenates deriving by non-cancerous (healthy) and cancerous (LC) tissues. k Survival rate of NSCLC patients according to IL-1α and caspase-4 levels (n = 61). Data are expressed as median ± quartile range and represented as violin plots. One Way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni’s post-test was applied to Fig. B. Mann Whitney test was applied to Fig. D, I and J; Two-Way ANOVA was applied to Fig. E. Log-rank Mantel-Cox and Wilcoxon test were performed to statistically analyze the survival rate between the four groups