Fig. 6

Clinical correlation between METTL3, SOX2 and IGF2BP2 in CRC. a, Representative images showing high or low expression of METTL3, SOX2 and IGF2BP2 in 432 CRC tumor specimens. b, Correlation between SOX2 and METTL3 or IGF2BP2 in CRC microarray specimens. c, Correlation between METTL3 level (left) or IGF2BP2 level (right) and the levels of SOX2 downstream genes, including CCND1, MYC, and POU5F1, in 63 paired CRC tumor tissues and adjacent normal tissues (SYSUCC cohort). d, Kaplan-Meier analysis of overall survival (OS) for CRC patients (n = 432) based on the number of upregulated molecular markers (Kaplan-Meier analysis with log-rank test). METTL3, SOX2, and IGF2BP2 expression was stratified by the individual medians by IHC analysis, and the patients were divided into three groups as indicated. e, ROC curve analysis for OS for METTL3 [AUC = 0.654, (95% CI, 0.607–0.698)], SOX2 [AUC = 0.635, (95% CI, 0.588–0.681)], and IGF2BP2 [AUC = 0.602, (95% CI, 0.554–0.649)] as individual biomarkers or for the combined panel [AUC = 0.703 (95% CI, 0.658–0.746)]. AUC, area under the curve. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 (Student’s t-test). f, ROC curve analysis for DFS for METTL3 [AUC = 0.612, (95% CI, 0.564–0.658)], SOX2 [AUC = 0.615, (95% CI, 0.568–0.661)], and IGF2BP2 [AUC = 0.591, (95% CI, 0.543–0.637)] as individual biomarkers or for the combined panel [AUC = 0.664 (95% CI, 0.618–0.709)]. AUC, area under a curve. g, Proposed working model of the proposed mechanism in this study. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 (Student’s t-test)