Patient characteristics.

<p>Patient characteristics.</p

Univariable analyses of standard clinical variables and galectin mRNA expression levels in relation to disease free survival in 87 patients with early stage NSCLC.

a)<p>Stage I vs. stage II, ^b)Squamous vs. others, ^c)Former smoker vs. others, ^d)Above vs. below median mRNA expression</p><p>Univariable analyses of standard clinical variables and galectin mRNA expression levels in relation to disease free survival in 87 patients with early stage NSCLC.</p

Images of immunohistochemical galectin-1 stainings (A: brown) and galectin-9 stainings (B: brown) of three representative tumors.

<p>Staining was observed in tumor cell compartment (T), stromal compartment (S) and in tumor endothelial cells (arrows). The inset on the left shows the isotype control staining. Scale bar = 50 micrometer. The bar graphs showing quantification of IHC scores for galectin-1 and galectin-9 in different tumor compartments.</p

Kaplan-Meier estimates of median OS and DFS in early stage NSCLC patients with galectin expression below or above the median level.

<p>HR = hazard ratio; CI = confidence interval.</p><p>Kaplan-Meier estimates of median OS and DFS in early stage NSCLC patients with galectin expression below or above the median level.</p

Galectin mRNA expression profile in tumor tissues obtained from early stage non-small cell lung cancer patients (n- = 87) (A).

<p>The inset shows the expression of the three galectin-9 splice variants. (B) Images of immunohistochemical staining of the galectins with detectable mRNA expression in NSCLC <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0107988#pone.0107988-Uhlen1" target="_blank">[27]</a>. (C) Western blot analysis of galectin-9 isoform expression in NSCLC tumor tissue from 5 different patients. Three bands at expected molecular weights of galectin-9FL, galectin-9Δ5 and galectin-9Δ5/6 were observed at varying intensities.</p

Multivariate Cox regression analysis with forward selection.

<p>HR = hazard ratio; CI = confidence interval.</p><p>Multivariate Cox regression analysis with forward selection.</p

Kaplan-Meier plots of overall survival (OS) or disease free survival (DFS) in early stage NSCLC patients with low (Lo: below median) or high (Hi: above median) expression of galectin-1 (A), galectin-9FL (B) and galectin-9Δ5 (C).

<p>Kaplan-Meier plots of overall survival (OS) or disease free survival (DFS) in early stage NSCLC patients with low (Lo: below median) or high (Hi: above median) expression of galectin-1 (A), galectin-9FL (B) and galectin-9Δ5 (C).</p