Fig. 4

High NSMCE2 expression correlates to breast cancer patients' poor response to chemotherapy. Left panels are box plots showing NSMCE2 gene expression levels in non-responder versus responder patients. Right panels are receiver operating characteristic (ROC) plots showing the specificity and sensitivity of NSMCE2 gene expression as a predictor for response to chemotherapy in: A breast cancer (n = 507), B) Grade III breast cancer (n = 194), C) Grade III TN breast cancer (n = 96), and D) Grade III HER2 + breast cancer (n = 47). In the four cases, non-responder patients have significantly higher NSMCE2 expression levels compared to the responder group and the AUC values indicate that NSMCE2 gene expression level is capable of distinguishing between responder and non-responder patients. Analyses shown in this figure were performed using ROC Plotter, Mann–Whitney U test and Receiver Operating Characteristic test. pCR = pathological complete response