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Fig. 1 | Journal of Translational Medicine

Fig. 1

From: Pharmacological prevention of surgery-accelerated metastasis in an animal model of osteosarcoma

Fig. 1

Surgical excision enhances metastatic progression of pre-existing micrometastases. a, b BALB/c mice were implanted with 3 × 105 cells in the left tibia and 1 week after implantation were randomly assigned to undergo either removal of their primary tumor via amputation of the tumor bearing limb (amputation, n = 10) or no surgery (tumor-bearing, n = 10). Mice were sacrificed 4 weeks after implantation (3 weeks post-surgery). a Number of nodules on surface of lungs. Scatter plots show individual mice. b Micrographs of mouse lungs 4 weeks after implantation of tumor cells (scale bar = 500 µm). c–f Combined data of three individual experiments (n = 10–15 per group per experiment). Mice were implanted with 1 × 105–3 × 105 cells; experimental design as in (a). Data normalized to tumor-bearing average for each experiment and expressed as fold change relative to tumor-bearing average. c Gross nodules on surface of lung. d Number of micrometastatic foci identified on histologic analysis. Single focus defined as ≥ 4 tumor cells. e Metastatic burden, calculated by measuring the total area of metastatic foci divided by the total area of the lung section. f Average focus size, calculated by measuring total area of metastatic foci divided by total number of foci. Data was compared with two-tailed Student’s t-test, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. g Mice were implanted as in (a) and randomly assigned to undergo either amputation of the tumor bearing limb (amputation, n = 18), amputation of the contralateral, non-tumor bearing-limb (n = 18), or no surgery (tumor-bearing, n = 18). Mice were sacrificed 4 weeks after implantation (3 weeks post-surgery). Data is the aggregate of two independent experiments. Data was compared with one-way ANOVA with post hoc Dunnett’s multiple comparisons test *p < 0.05. All graphs show mean ± standard deviation

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