Table 3 Gene expression levels in MSI-H and MSS colon cancers compared with normal mucosa

Target gene expression	n	Tissues		p Value*	T/NT ratio
Target gene expression	n	Non-tumoural	Tumoural	p Value*	T/NT ratio
IL8	(45)	0.3 (0.1–0.7)	7.5 (3.4–12.2)	<0.0001
MSS	(31)	0.2 (0.1–0.7)	7.5 (3.4–11.0)	<0.0001	35.5
MSI-H	(14)	0.4 (0.1–0.9)	9.8 (3.0–16.5)	0.001	26.0
p Value†					0.79
CXCR1	(45)	0.2 (0.1–0.4)	0.6 (0.3–1.3)	0.004
MSS	(31)	0.2 (0.1–0.4)	0.5 (0.2–0.7)
MSI-H	(14)	0.2 (0.001–0.8)	0.9 (0.4–2.9)
p Value†
IL1β	(45)	336 (104–1047)	2143 (686–4729)	<0.0001
MSS	(31)	330 (73 – 622)	1852 (489–3392)	<0.0001	4.7
MSI-H	(14)	388 (172–1290)	3844 (686–5756)	0.01	4.5
p Value†					0.79
IL6	(45)	1014 (297–4837)	12 281 (5942–23 507)	0.003
MSS	(31)	904 (247–4815)	12 824 (3597–28 160)	0.002	19.6
MSI-H	(14)	1764 (726–11418)	11 357 (7165–17 411)	0.36	3.6
p Value†					0.08
TGFβ	(45)	1878 (975–2992)	4488 (2191–6061)	<0.0001
MSS	(31)	1755 (962–3030)	3941 (1953–5935)	<0.0001	2.2
MSI-H	(14)	2007 (1054–2728)	5264 (2818–9656)	0.004	2.5
p Value†					0.71
TNFα	(45)	133 (75–269)	216 (153–390)	0.22
MSS	(31)	104 (65–234)	199 (139–381)
MSI-H	(14)	192 (130–1359)	222 (174–492)
p Value†

Results are expressed as median (first–third quartiles) of the ratio of the target gene to the housekeeping gene mRNA copy numbers.
*p Value of the paired non-parametric comparisons between tumoural and non-tumoural tissues (Wilcoxon signed-rank test).
†p Value of the non-parametric comparisons between MSS and MSI-H phenotypes.
After using the Bonferroni correction for multiple testing, p⩽0.003 (0.05/15) was considered statistically significant and these values are indicated in bold.
CXCR, chemokine receptor; IL, interleukin; MSS, microsatellite stability; MSI-H, high-frequency microsatellite instability; NT, non-tumoural; T, tumoural; TGF, transforming growth factor; TNF, tumour necrosis factor.