Fig. 2

Proteomic alterations associated with inflammation, ECM organization, TGFβ receptor signaling pathway and angiogenesis. Schematic presentation of identified regulated proteins and their functional annotation according to literature. Most proteins were confirmed and grouped by GO-term enrichment analysis of biological processes using the Cytoscape plugin Cluego. Significant associations were found with ECM-organization (14 proteins, p > 0.0001), angiogenesis (8 proteins, p < 0.0001) and TGFβ receptor signaling pathways (3 proteins, p = 0.0017). Inflammation was indirectly covered by terms like “response to corticosteroid” (3 proteins, p < 0.0001), “blood vessel development” (8 proteins, p < 0.0001) and “endothelial cell migration” (4 proteins, p < 0.0001). Blue represent proteins with lower abundance in the tumor, while red indicates upregulation compared to adjacent normal mucosa