Fig. 1

Data visualization. Comparison of violin plots of the distribution of the mean normalized expression values of 18,942 quality filtered ENSEMBL genes shows very similar distribution patterns for both patient groups (A). The median values were very similar for both groups (NP: 2.841, P: 3.080), with means being almost identical to the median values (NP: 2.835, P: 3.082). The volcano plot (B) of all 18,942 genes reveals a fairly symmetrical distribution of the fold changes in the absence of overt severe anomalies. Dots in red are 1167 differentially expressed genes. (C) Displays principal component analysis using expression values. A total of 1167 genes were differentially expressed (abs. FC  ≥ 2; p  ≤ 0.05) in the nonprogressor (blue) and progressor (red) groups. Each dot represents one patient. The nonoverlapping circle surrounding each group refers to the 95% confidence interval. The nonprogressors and progressors cluster together and separate along PC1, which explains 31% of the variance. The heatmap in D is based on the same 1167 differentially expressed genes used in the PCA. All samples clustered within their own group, with a clear separation between progressors and nonprogressors. Upregulated genes are shown in shades of red, and downregulated genes are shown in shades of blue