Fig. 4

Correlation of tumor stage or neck node metastasis and the immunostaining patterns of NANOG, mutant p53, and CD44. a Strong or moderate expression of NANOG is directly associated with late-stage tumors, whereas weak or negative expression of NANOG is directly related to early-stage carcinoma (p < 0.05). Positive expression of mutant p53 is also significantly associated with late-stage tumors (p = 0.039). Higher expression of CD44 is frequently associated with late-stage tumors, but no statistical significance was observed (p > 0.05). b Tumors with weak or negative expression of NANOG (p = 0.004), negative expression of mutant p53 (p = 0.006), and weak expression of CD44 (p = 0.049) show a significantly higher frequency of negative neck node metastasis. Higher expression levels of the three proteins are not associated with neck node metastasis (p > 0.05). Data represent the number of cases with positive expression of each protein, and an asterisk (*) indicates a significant difference (p < 0.05). [Abbreviations: I + II, tumor stage I & II; III + IV, tumor stage III & IV; N0, negative neck node metastasis; N+, positive neck node metastasis]