Fig. 3

Profiling Novel Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)-Specific Long Non-Coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in plasma-derived Epexo. (a) Depiction of a volcano plot comparing lncRNA expression profiles in plasma-derived Epexo between NSCLC cases and pneumonia controls, with 1.5-fold up- and down-regulated lncRNAs (with P < 0.01) in NSCLC samples highlighted by light green and pink dots, respectively. (b) Heat map illustrating the altered expression levels of lncRNAs in plasma-derived Epexo between NSCLC cases and pneumonia controls. (c) Venn diagram displaying six dysregulated lncRNAs shared between plasma-derived Epexo and cancerous tissues from NSCLC patients. (d) Heat map visualizing the six common dysregulated lncRNAs in plasma-derived Epexo between NSCLC cases and pneumonia controls. (e-j) Expression patterns of linc01125 (e), linc01160 (f), SP2-AS1 (g), MIR100HG (h), HNF1A-AS1 (i), and ZNRF3-AS1 (j) in plasma-derived Epexo from a cohort of 210 NSCLC patients, including patients with local stage (LS) and regional or distant stage (RDS), as well as 245 healthy individuals (control). Statistical analysis was conducted using unpaired t-tests with Welch’s correction. Each dot in the violin plots represents the expression value of the respective lncRNA, with the solid line in the center indicating the median expression level