Fig. 4

Differential levels of inflammatory and angiogenic mediators in ex vivo TCM of oesophageal, rectal and colonic adenocarcinoma tumour biopsies. Ex vivo TCM contained varying raw levels of inflammatory and angiogenic mediators. IL-2 was at significantly higher levels in oesophageal than rectal and colonic adenocarcinoma TCM (green asterisks). Ang-2 was at significantly lower levels in oesophageal than colonic TCM (red asterisks). bFGF was at significantly lower levels in oesophageal than rectal and colonic TCM (red asterisks). Statistically significant (unpaired t-test) levels of secreted mediators in mock or unirradiated TCM of oesophageal (n = 14), rectal (n = 8) or colonic (n = 7) biopsies is indicated by asterisks, where green asterisks indicate higher levels in the oesophageal TCM than in rectal or colonic TCM and red asterisks indicate lower levels, * p ≤ 0.05. No significant differences were observed between ex vivo TCM from patient-matched 0Gy- and 2Gy-biopsies