Activation of the hypoxia pathway in breast cancer tissue and patient survival are inversely associated with tumor ascorbate levels

Table 1 Relationship of tumor HIF-1α protein levels and HIF-1 pathway score with clinicopathological parameters

Parameter		n	HIF-1α protein^a	p value	HIF-1 pathway score^a,b	p value
Grade	1	7	0.39 ± 0.30	0.14	25.2 ± 9.0	0.004
	2	20	0.58 ± 0.37		38.2 ± 15.3
	3	22	0.70 ± 0.37		50.5 ± 14.5
Tumor stage	1	16	0.59 ± 0.45	0.70	37.9 ± 16.7	0.042
	2	31	0.60 ± 0.33		42.2 ± 15.6
	3	2	0.83 ± 0.31		68.7 ± 1.8
Node	0	17	0.53 ± 0.33	0.29	38.9 ± 14.7	0.37
Node	1	32	0.65 ± 0.39	0.29	43.4 ± 17.5	0.37
Vascular invasion	0	22	0.55 ± 0.43	0.28	36.5 ± 16.2	0.023
	1	26	0.67 ± 0.32	0.28	47.2 ± 15.3	0.023
	na	1
DCIS Necrosis	0	17	0.49 ± 0.31	0.14	31.5 ± 11.1	0.001
	1	27	0.65 ± 0.35	0.14	47.0 ± 15.8	0.001
	na	5
Tumor size^c	Pearson correlation	49	R = 0.101	0.49	R = 0.348	0.014
Hormone Receptor Status^d	HR⁺	39	0.55 ± 0.34	0.02	38.1 ± 15.3	0.001
	HR⁻	10	0.85 ± 0.40	0.02	56.6 ± 13.0	0.001

^aMean ± SD from n = 49 patients, p values from ANOVA. Significance is indicated when p <0.05
^bHIF-1 pathway score calculated from relative protein levels of HIF-1α, CA-IX, BNIP-3 and VEGF
na, not available
^cTumor size, invasive component only, excluding DCIS
^dHormone receptor HR⁺, ER+(PR+/−, Her2+/−) and includes both Luminal A and B; HR⁻, ER-PR-(Her2+/−) and includes Her2-enriched and basal-like tumours

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