Fig. 2

IGF2BP2 highly expressed in HNSCC tissues and related to lymphatic metastasis. A RT-qPCR analysis of the expression of IGF2BP2 in HNSCC tissues (n = 20) and NATs (n = 20). NAT: normal adjacent tissues; T: tumor. ****P < 0.0001. B Western blot analysis of IGF2BP2 expression in HNSCC tissues and NATs (n = 5). Right panel shows the statistical data. ***P < 0.001. C RT-qPCR analysis of the expression of IGF2BP2 in HNSCC tissues with or without lymphatic metastasis (n = 20, including 10 cases with lymphatic metastasis and 10 cases without lymphatic metastasis). LM (+): lymphatic metastasis; LM (−): non-lymphatic metastasis. ***P < 0.001. D Western blot analysis of the expression of IGF2BP2 in HNSCC tissues with or without lymphatic metastasis. Statistical data is shown in the right panel. **P < 0.01. E-F Representative images (E) and percentages (F) of IGF2BP2 expression in the paraffin-embedded HNSCC tissues with or without lymphatic metastasis and NATs. Scale bars: 200 μm. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. G Kaplan-Meier curves of OS in HNSCC patients with high and low expression of IGF2BP2. The median IGF2BP2 expression was applied as the cutoff value. GAPDH served as an internal control. All the data are presented in the form of mean ± SD from three independently performed experiments