Fig. 5

TAGLN2 is overexpressed in the blood from patients with biliary tract cancer. (A) Dot plot for the serum level of CA19–9 in normal control and patients with biliary stone and BTC. (B) Dot plot for the serum TAGLN2 expression in western blot converted into an arbitrary unit by densitography using ImageJ software in normal control and patients with biliary stone and BTC. (C) ROC curves for TAGLN2, CA19–9, and their mathematical combination of patients with BTC versus those with benign diseases. (D) Distribution of TAGLN2 and CA 19 − 9 levels in patients with benign diseases (black dot) and BTC (red dot). The optimal cut-off levels of CA 19 − 9 and TAGLN2 were 37 U/mL and 1061.9 arbitrary unit, respectively. Thirty-seven CA 19 − 9 negative patients with BTC (red dots in Left upper quadrant) were diagnosed using TAGLN2 (diagnostic yield, 84.1% (37/44 cases)