Fig. 5

Inverse association of VEGFA expression with expression of antitumor immune gene signatures. a Heatmap of immune-related gene expression for inflamed and noninflamed subsets of the CUP cohort (n = 72). Each colored square in the heatmap represents the Z score for the expression of one gene, with the highest expression shown in yellow, median in black, and lowest in blue. Expression of VEGFA is shown below. b–d Dot plots of VEGFA expression for the inflamed group (n = 36) and the noninflamed group (n = 36) of the CUP cohort (b) as well as of CD8⁺ effector T cell (c) and T helper 1 cell (d) gene expression signatures for the CUP cohort (n = 72) according to VEGFA expression (Z score < 0, n = 34; Z score ≥ 0, n = 38). The FDR in (b) was 0.010. The mean and SEM values are shown, and the P values were determined with the Wilcoxon rank sum test