Figure 5

A subset of CSR genes predicts poor prognosis in human tumors. A) Hierarchal clustering of two breast tumor datasets with respect to up-regulated CSR genes reveals tumor sample clusters associated with low disease-free survival (cluster 3 in panel i and cluster 4 in panel ii). The color scale beneath the heat maps indicates standard deviations from mean centered gene expression values. Colors of survival curves correspond to the colored clusters indicated in the heat maps above each survival plot. B) A common set of up-regulated genes associated with low-survival clusters in panel A, termed the aggressive tumor gene signature (Table 4), correlates with poor prognosis in several patient cohorts. Tumor clusters expressing high levels of the aggressive signature genes (aggressive high) correlate with lower lung and bone metastasis-free survival in patients with breast tumors (i and ii), as well as with lower disease-free survival in separate cohorts of patients with breast (iii) or lung tumors (iv).