Expression profiles of FAP-alpha in normal and malignant human epithelial tissues. (A) Whisker-box plots for normal (green), malignant (red), and malignant metastatic lesions (orange); the number of samples for each tissue is given. The bold lines in each box indicate median values, and box limits represent the first and third quartiles; the whiskers extend to 1.5 times this interquartile range. The highest value in each cohort outside the whiskers is marked by the letter "x." For significant upregulation of FAP-alpha in cancers versus matched normal tissues, the P-values in Student's t-tests are shown. (B) Patterns of FAP-alpha expression, as determined by immunohistochemistry with mAb F19, are shown. The avidin biotin complex immunoperoxidase method was used, followed by hematoxilin counterstaining. Appropriate negative controls with unrelated antibodies were run in all assays and did not yield any immunoperoxidase staining. SCC, squamous cell carcinoma; LN, lymph node; (P), primary; (M), metastases; Pap ca, papillary carcinoma; AdSq Ca, adenosquamous carcinoma; LCC, large cell carcinoma; SCLC, small cell lung carcinoma; NEC, neuroendocrine cancer; Inflamm, inflammatory; MAC, mucinous adenocarcinoma; HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; IDC, intraductal carcinoma; DC, ductal carcinoma; LC, lobular carcinoma; MC, medullary carcinoma; MMT, Müllerian mixed tumor; ClCC, clear cell carcinoma; GCC, granular cell carcinoma; OC, oncocytoma; TCC, transitional cell carcinoma; WT, Wilms’ tumor. Normal head and neck tissues consisted of seven normal parotid gland tissues and six normal larynx samples.