Relationship between Erk5 expression and disease-free survival.

<p><i>A</i>, Kaplan-Meier plots of disease-free survival with respect to Erk5 levels in 84 early stage breast cancer patients. Patients with high levels of Erk5 (n = 17) had a worse disease-free survival (DFS) time (14.13 months; 95% CI: 3.78–24.48) compared with patients (n = 67) with low levels (34.33 months; 95% CI: 18.52–50.14). The difference was statistically significant in the log-rank test (<i>p</i> = 0.0014). <i>B</i>, Kaplan-Meier plots of disease-free survival with respect to Erk5 levels in 24 HER2 positive early stage breast cancer patients. Patients with high levels of Erk5 (n = 8) had a worse disease-free survival (DFS) time (9.70 months; 95% CI: 6.58–12.95) compared to patients (n = 16) with low levels (28 months; 95% CI: 15.53–41.40). The difference was statistically significant in the log-rank test (<i>p</i> = 0.012).