Clustering of 203 CRC patients by NBS based on gene breakpoints and gene mutations revealed four CRC subtypes.

<p>(A) Co-clustering matrix of CRC samples generated by NBS analysis. The matrix color intensity represents the similarity score. The color bar on top indicates the groups of patients related to the four CRC subtypes (k = 4) as determined by hierarchical clustering after NBS analysis. (B) Kaplan-Meier plot for overall survival (in days) of CRC subtype 1 (n = 80 patients), subtype 2 (n = 45 patients), subtype 3 (n = 27 patients) and subtype 4 (n = 51 patients). There are significant differences in OS among the four CRC subtypes (log-rank <i>P</i> = 0.001), with poorest OS for subtype 3 CRC patients. (C) Kaplan-Meier plot for OS of CRC subtype 3 patients <i>versus</i> patients in other CRC subtypes, showing a hazard ratio (HR) of 2.17 and a median OS of 392 days <i>versus</i> 610 days, respectively (log-rank <i>P</i> = 0.0002).