Fig. 1

Clinicopathologic analysis of ABCA1 expression in cutaneous melanoma patients. A, B Representative images of ABCA1 immunoreactivity in cutaneous melanoma cells (A; low level of expression 200 × and 600 ×, B; high expression 200 × and 600 ×) Black arrows indicate membranous localization of ABCA1. Scale bars represent 0.2 mm (200 ×) or 0.05 mm (600 ×). ROI region of interest. C, J Box-plot comparison of H-score means between the groups divided by different clinical and histological parameters. ANOVA or Wilcoxon two sample tests were used for statistical analyses. Mitotic rates were defined as: 0—no mitosis (0 mitoses/mm²), 1—low mitogenic potential (1–2 mitoses/mm²) and 3—highly mitogenic tumors (≥ 3 mitoses/mm²) pT: primary tumour, ALM: acral lentiginous melanoma, NM: nodular melanoma, SSM: superficial spreading melanoma. K, L Kaplan–Meier analysis of the impact of ABCA1 on long-term survival of cutaneous melanoma patients. Overexpression of ABCA1 in melanoma cells significantly correlated with shorter cancer-specific overall survival (K) and shorter disease-free survival (L). The log-rank test was used for statistical analyses