Fig. 2

Comparison of the number of M2 macrophages in different groups of lymph nodes and the patients’ different clinicopathological features. Comparison of M2 macrophages in lymph nodes of different groups. a The mean number of M2 macrophages in metastatic lymph nodes (group B) is higher than that in normal lymph nodes (group A) (***P<0.0001), and the mean number of M2 macrophages in non-metastatic lymph nodes adjacent to cancer (group C) is higher than that in normal lymph nodes (group A) (***P<0.0001). b The mean number of M2 macrophages in macro-metastasis (group D) is higher than that in micro-metastasis (group E) (***P<0.0001). Comparison of M2 macrophages among different clinicopathological features. c The number of M2 macrophages is positively correlated with the degree of lymph node metastasis (***P<0.0001, **P=0.031). With the increase of pathological tumor (T) categories (d) and clinical TNM stage (e), the mean number of M2 macrophages also increased (***P<0.0001). f The greater the degree of tumor differentiation, the higher the mean number of M2 macrophages (***P<0.0001)