Figure 4

Comparative analyses of circulating protease activities in blood of tumor patients and healthy individuals. The box plots compare the relative protease activities in blood of healthy individuals (n = 28) with those of patients with benign breast disease (n = 20), primary breast cancer (M0, n = 31) and metastatic breast cancer (M1, n = 32) (A). The statistical significances as determined by the Mann and Whitney-U test are indicated. The ROC analyses show the profiles of sensitivity and specificity of protease activities to discriminate healthy controls from breast cancer patients (B), benign tumor patients from breast cancer patients (C) and M0 from M1 breast cancer patients (D).