Fig. 4

ADAM23 methylation levels in PT and LMN samples of patients with different statuses of cancer cell dissemination characterized by CTC and/or LMN presence. The length of the boxes is the interquartile range (IQR) that represents values between the 75th and 25th percentiles. The circle (○) labelled outliers (values more than 1.5 IQRs but less than 3 IQRs from the end of the box). Values more than three IQRs, extremes, are depicted by asterisk (*).The horizontal line represents median. Significance level is regarded as P < 0.05. Abbreviations: PT, primary tumour; LNM, lymph node metastases; CTC, circulating tumour cells