Fig. 2

MELK overexpression is associated with poor prognosis in ACC: A mRNA expression of MELK from publicly available data sets GSE33371 (NC = 10, ACA = 22, and ACC = 33) and GSE12368 (NC = 6, ACA = 16, and ACC = 12), respectively. B IHC study for MELK and Ki67 expression in the NIH cohort of ACA (n = 10) and ACC (n = 10) (p < 0.05). C Quantification graph of MELK and Ki67 expression in ACC (p<0.01) (upper plan); Ki67 and MELK correlation graph from IHC scoring data (p = 0.04) (lower plan). D Kaplan–Meier survival curve representing the OS in TCGA ACC patients (n = 78) with high and low MELK expression. High MELK expression (red) (n = 39); low MELK expression (blue) (n = 39) (*p < 0.01). E Kaplan–Meier survival curve representing the OS in E-TABM-311 ACC patients (n = 34) with high and low MELK expression. High MELK expression (red) (n = 16); low MELK expression (blue) (n = 18) (*p < 0.01). F Kaplan–Meier survival curve representing the overall DFS in TCGA ACC patients with high and low MELK expression. High MELK expression (red) (n = 16); low MELK expression (blue) (n = 18) (*p < 0.01). G Differential mRNA expression of MELK by overall stages (stage I, II [n = 46] vs. stage III, IV [n = 30]) in the TCGA ACC patient data set (*p < 0.05). H Differential mRNA expression of MELK by tumor stages in the TCGA ACC patient data set (T1–T2 [n = 51] vs. T3–T4 [n = 25]) (*p < 0.05). I Differential mRNA expression of MELK by lymph node status in the TCGA ACC cohort (*p < 0.05). Lymph node positive (n = 67); lymph node negative (n = 9). J Differential mRNA expression of MELK by alive (n = 51) and dead status (n = 27) of ACC patients data in the TCGA cohort (*p < 0.05)