Fig. 1

The gene expression pattern of 14-gene expression signature for visceral metastasis in breast cancer. Heat map displays the gene expression profiling pattern of the 14 differentially expressed genes among 151 tumours. Primary tumours of the patients who developed visceral metastasis are illustrated in blue and the ones without visceral metastatic disease are in yellow. For each primary tumour the expression level of the specific gene is exhibited as red, if up-regulated and green, if down-regulated. Molecular subtypes of primary tumours are also demonstrated as; dark blue for luminal A, light blue for luminal B, yellow for HER2-like, pink for basal type and orange for normal-like tumours. *visceral metastasis: clinically evident visceral organ (liver, lung or brain) metastasis: yellow, absent; blue, present. **gene expression level: red, up-regulation; green, down-regulation. ***molecular subtype: dark blue, luminal A; light blue, luminal B; yellow, HER2-like; pink, basal type; orange, normal-like