Fig. 4

The clinical significance of ZFP36L1 in NPC patients and an inverse correlation was observed between miR-182-5p and ZFP36L1 in cancer tissues. a IHC for ZFP36L1 was performed in seventy-five clinical NPC samples. Dot plots present a comparison of ZFP36L1 expression in NPC tissues stratified by T classification (T1 + T2 vs. T3 + T4), N classification (N0 + N1 vs. N2 + N3), and Clinical Stage (I + II vs. III + IV). Data represent the mean ± SD. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, Mann–Whitney test. b, c IHC was performed in the primary NPC samples without (LN−) or with (LN+) lymph node metastasis. The panel b presents representative images, while the panel c illustrates the statistical results using a Mann–Whitney test. Scale bars, 50 μm. d Overall survival curves were generated based on the ZFP36L1 protein expression status in tumor tissues. Actuarial probabilities were calculated using the Kaplan–Meier method and compared using the log-rank test. e There was a negative correlation of ZFP36L1 staining scores and miR-182-5p relative expression levels in NPC tissue samples (n = 75; r = − 0.4927, p < 0.0001; linear regression analysis). f Up-regulation of miR-182-5p and down-expression of ZFP36L1 (e) were closely associated with poor overall survival rates of NPC patients