Figure 1

Caveolin-1 immunostaining patterns in human tongue sections and association with clinical outcomes. A. Staining in the tumor is principally limited to the peripheral cells and is assessed with a score of 1.0 (50% for extent of staining and 2 for staining intensity). In contrast, there is almost no staining of the tumor microenvironment (TME) that was given a score of 0.1 (10% for extent of staining and 1 for staining intensity). B. Most of the tumor cells are strongly positive (a score of 3) and TME is negative (a score of 0). C. Caveolin-1 is moderately positive in the tumor cells (score of 0.9), but it predominates in the TME (score of 3) (A, B, C - bar = 200 μ). D. Kaplan-Meyer analysis shows a significantly negative influence of high CAV-TME score on locoregional recurrence (p = 0.01). E. Kaplan-Meier analysis shows a significantly negative influence of high CAV-TME score on overall survival (p = 0.003).