Fig. 5

Drug fingerprint of MDA-MB-231 cells cultured in PDSs in relation to clinical characteristics. A Scatter plot showing the gene expression for 72 patient-derived scaffolds (PDSs) cultures with MDA-MB-231 cancer cells treated with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or doxorubicin (DOX) for 48 h in comparison to untreated PDS cultures. Data is relative to gene expression in untreated 2D culture (*P < 0.05. ** P < 0.01. ***P < 0.001. ****P < 0.0001). B Heatmap depicting Pearson correlation coefficients (ρ-values) for the individual gene expression changes in the drug fingerprints for the PDSs treated with 5-FU versus DOX. (P-values for each analysis are detailed in Additional file 2: Tables S8). C Bubble plots representing the association between changes in gene expression in treated PDSs with 5-FU or DOX to clinico-pathological data of the original cancer (LN Met—lymph node metastases, PR—progesteron receptor status, ER—estrogen receptor status). The circle size represents the level of significance (P-value) and the circle color indicates the clinical variable (y axis) that was associated with higher gene expression levels in PDSs (x axis). (For detailed information, see Additional file 2: Tables S11 and Additional file 1: Fig S7. D Kaplan–Meier plot displaying the relationship between EPCAM drug fingerprint after DOX treatment (blue, low expression; red, high expression) and disease-free survival. P < 0.05, log-rank (detailed information in Additional file 2: Table S11)