Representative images showing pulmonary metastases with low, intermediate and high intensity of positive tumor stroma stained for Hsp27 and α-SMA.

<p>Stromal fibroblasts were further identified by vimentin staining. (DAB substrate, same tumor specimen per row, 200x magnification).</p

Kaplan-Meier plots showing the lung-metastasis free survival, recurrence free survival and overall survival after metastasectomy dependent on stromal Hsp27 (A), stromal α-SMA (B) and tumor Hsp27 (C) scoring.

<p>Kaplan-Meier plots showing the lung-metastasis free survival, recurrence free survival and overall survival after metastasectomy dependent on stromal Hsp27 (A), stromal α-SMA (B) and tumor Hsp27 (C) scoring.</p

Total Hsp27 (A), phospho-Hsp27 (B) and IL-8 (C) were measured in serum samples of healthy volunteers, patients with CRC lung metastases before and 3 months after metastasectomy (each n = 10; whiskers indicate standard deviation).

<p>Total Hsp27 (A), phospho-Hsp27 (B) and IL-8 (C) were measured in serum samples of healthy volunteers, patients with CRC lung metastases before and 3 months after metastasectomy (each n = 10; whiskers indicate standard deviation).</p

The degree of Hsp27 expression score in the tumor stroma correlated significantly with the expression of stromal α-SMA (A).

<p>CD31-positive microvessels surrounded by tumor stroma next to tumor cells (asterisk) (B). MVD was significantly increased in primary tumors and metastases with strong stromal Hsp27 expression (C). Immunofluorescence showed a co-expression of stromal Hsp27 and α-SMA especially in PM (400x magnification) (D).</p