Fig. 5

Clinical follow up after different treatments. Tumor volume measurements were conducted at week 0 and week 4 post-treatments. Note lesions within the yellow dashed circles. a-d Intra and extra oral tumors at week 0 just before treatment with saline, FGFR1i-AuNSs, 5Fu-AuNSs and CPT-AuNSs, respectively. e A hamster treated with saline showed a significant increase in tumor volume, at 4 weeks post-treatment. Notice the formation of new intraoral exophytic polyps (yellow arrow). f A hamster treated with FGFR1i-AuNSs showed enhanced tumor shrinkage with decreased vasculature. g, h Animals treated with 5Fu-AuNSs and CPT-AuNSs also showed reduction in tumor size. i Tumor volume percentage change across the 8 groups showing enhanced tumor reduction rate related to FGFR1i-AuNSs treatment (− 63.09%, p< 0.001), followed by 5Fu-AuNSs (− 43.4%, p< 0.001). There was no significant difference between the 2 treatments indicating a favorable clinical effect (ns). j Kaplan Meier survival curve demonstrating significantly increased life span in animals treated with 5Fu-AuNSs, FGFR1i-AuNSs and CPT-AuNSs compared with control and free form of the drugs, denoted with asterisks (p< 0.001). Note the lack of significant difference among the nanoconjugates (ns). (n= 13)